Old Lyme has it all clicking
Top-seeded Wildcats avenge loss to H-K in big way and advance to Shoreline final
Old Lyme — A light rain fell at Old Lyme High School as its boys' lacrosse team poured in goals against Haddam-Killingworth on Tuesday.
The top-seeded Wildcats scored 12 first-half goals en route to a 19-6 rout over the Cougars in a Shoreline Conference semifinal, avenging last week's loss.
“Without a doubt this is one of the top games we've played this year,” said Old Lyme's Henry Hunt, The Day's 2015 All-Area Boys' Lacrosse Player of the Year and reigning Shoreline Conference Player of the Year.
“Everyone is really locked in and ready to go. I'm feeling good about this team right now.”
The Wildcats (15-2) get to defend their conference title against No. 3 Morgan in Thursday's 5 p.m. final at Connecticut College. Morgan (10-7) beat No. 2 North Branford, 16-12, in the day's other semifinal.
Old Lyme beat the Huskies in last year's inaugural final, 17-14. It also beat them twice this season (15-8, April 2; and 8-7, April 28).
The Wildcats returned most of their Shoreline championship team, but didn't play up to theit talent level in a 10-9 loss to No. 4 H-K on May 17.
The loss straightened out Old Lyme. It won at North Branford last Thursday (16-9) to split the regular season series and earn the tournament's top seed.
Tuesday's win was one of the most lopsided this season for the Wildcats and tied for the third-most goals they've scored in a game (they've scored 20 twice).
"We came in a little overconfident (last week) and played an individual
game and didn't really play good defense," Hunt said. "Today, I think we were really solid on both ends of the field, and it's a really good time to be peaking with the championship game Thursday coming up."
Old Lyme head coach Mike Murphy said, "We only gave up one goal in the second half. We're really playing some strong defense and adjusting our offense as teams try to do different things against us defensively."
Hunt increased his team-leading point total with four goals and four assists (he's scored 84 times with 60 assists). His 156 points last year were a single-season state record, according to laxworm.com.
Junior Ian Humphreys added three goals and two assists, sophomore Gray Colvin scored four times and senior Ryan Powers added three goals for the Wildcats. Seniors Ashton Bohan and Mike Moran both scored twice, classmate Josh Turkowski had two assists, and sophomore Matt Cushman also had a goal, an assist and won 12 of 18 face-offs.
"Our top face-off guy was hurt today, (senior) Gus Cummins (ankle)," Murphy said. "Matt Cushman did really well, and then we had another sophomore, Cory Bartlett that did well today, too. So it was great to have young guys contributing in a big game like this."
Old Lyme scored eight times in the second quarter and led, 12-5, at halftime. That included five straight goals in the quarter's first four minutes. The officials called for running clock after Old Lyme went ahead, 185, with over three minutes left in the third quarter.
Dan Civiello had two goals and two assists for the Cougars (9-8).