Avon girls lax dominates Granby to win NCCC Tournament title

The Avon High girls lacrosse celebrates their second straight NCCC Tournament championship.

SUFFIELD, May 24 – It’s not easy to be a defender in high school girls lacrosse. You’re limited with what you can do. You can’t hit – or you’re not supposed to – the offensive player or their stick.

What you can do is move – a lot. Your job is to block the passing lanes and shooting lanes for an offensive player. Limit their opportunities to move the ball and be ready to pounce on any loose balls that come from the offensive player loosing control of the ball.

The Avon High girls lacrosse tightened up its defense and easily won their second straight NCCC Tournament championship Friday with a dominating 13-2 win over Granby — the most lopsided victory in the tournament’s brief history.

“We’re a pretty good team,” Avon coach Sean Cole said. “Defensively, we haven’t been as good as we were tonight. Offensively, we know we can score goals. Defensively, we’ve been late bloomers.”

The Falcons (14-4) gave up just two goals to a Granby squad that went 11-4-1 in the regular season and shared the NCCC championship with Avon this spring. Both teams were 9-1 in the league.

“We worked hard and committed to work hard,” Cole said. 

The Falcons call it sliding – moving to the ball and covering the open players. All of that constant chasing can be tiring. A team needs to remain disciplined to defend well. “It was definitely the best we have played together all season,” said co-captain Hailey Graff.

In Avon’s fourth game of the season, Granby came to Avon High and handed the Falcons a 12-8 defeat. Avon won the return match two weeks later with a 17-8 decision.

“We wanted this one badly,” said Avon co-captain Riley Hagan. We wanted to show that we’re the better team.”

Britt Douglas had three goals while Hunter McCarthy and Sammi Maniatty had two each as Avon led 6-0 before Granby scored its first goal. The Falcons led 8-1 at the half.

McCarthy finished with five goals while Douglas finished with four. Maggie Magridi and tournament MVP Emily Wright each added goals. Falcon goalie Paige Hammick made 10 saves.

Granby received two goals from Abby Hokunson.

“Avon is a great team,” Granby coach Terri Ziemnicki said. “You have to go out every day and be the best you can be. However, some days it doesn’t work out for you.”

Avon’s next challenge comes in the CIAC Class M tournament. The Falcons host Fairfield Warde on Tuesday at the high school at 4 p.m. With a win, they’ll advance to the quarterfinals on Thursday, June 1, most likely against No. 4 Brookfield.

Meanwhile, Granby (12-5-1), will play in the CIAC Class S tournament. They will be hosting Immaculate Danbury on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. With a win, the Bears will face either Old Saybrook or Waterford in the Class S quarterfinals on Thursday, May 30.

In its final six regular season games, the Bears went 4-1-1 including a 13-13 with South Windsor (7-5-2), who qualified for the Class L tournament, and an 18-10 win over North Branford.

The Bears had a strong outing in a 15-12 victory over Suffield in the NCCC semifinals with Krista Iwanicki scoring five goals, Colleen Leonard with four goals and Hokunson with three. Kelsey Iwanicki chipped in with two and goalie Hala Van Norstrand made eight stops in net. 

Avon 13, Granby 2
At Suffield
Granby      1  1  — 2
Avon          8  5  — 13
Goals: Hunter McCarthy (A) 4, Britt Douglas (A) 4, Maggie Magridi (A), Emily Wright (A), Sammy Maniatty (A); Abbey Hokunson (G) 2; Assists: Riley Hagan (A) 3, Douglas (A) 2, Magridi (A), Kaylan Conrad (A); Saves: Paige Hammick (A) 10, Hala Van Nostrand (G) 8 

NCCC Tournament championship games
2007: Avon 13, Somers 10
No tournament from 2008 through 2010
2011: Suffield 11, Granby 9
2012: Avon 11, Granby 8
2013: Avon 13, Granby 2