Goalie Franco plays key role as East Lyme girls roll to ECC lacrosse title
Montville — It wasn't Gigi Franco's idea to become a goaltender while working her way up through youth lacrosse.
Franco kind of wasn't given a choice.
"I was a defend- er to start off my lacrosse career, but I was too aggressive," Franco said while laughing. "So they put me in goal."
Franco has evolved quite nicely in the net. She earned tournament most valuable player honors as top-seeded East Lyme held Stonington scoreless for over 23 minutes and blitzed its way to an 18-4 victory in the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament final at Montville High School.
Franco had nine saves on 17 shots for the Vikings (14-4).
"At first I didn't really want to be a goalie, but once I started playing in my eighth grade year, I just fell in love with it," Franco said. "I couldn't do it without the encouragement of my other teammates who've I've been with since eighth grade.
"It really is just all adrenaline (as a goaltender). I just really like seeing everything and then being able to call out what I see and the way my defense will get there and just help me out is amazing and I just love seeing it all come together. I love making clears and seeing my attackmen make shots off of them. It's my favorite thing."
East Lyme won all three games against the third-seeded Bears (14-5) this season.
Senior Meredith Healy had two goals and three assists, junior Abigail Belleville had four goals and junior Dani Bruno had three goals and an assist for the Vikings.
Also contributing to the East Lyme offense were senior Sydney
East Lyme 18 Stonington 4