Scenes from Darien's 13-7 win over New Canaan in the FCIAC Boys Lacrosse semifinal on May 26, 2015.
Only 17 days ago, the New Canaan boys lacrosse team put together one of its best games of the season against arch-rival Darien, culminating in a 9-8, heart-stopping victory for the Rams. The win ended the Blue Wave’s 34-game winning streak dating all the way back to 2013.
Tuesday night at Jack Casagrande Field in Norwalk, Darien got its revenge.
Behind Colin Minicus’ four goals (three in the first quarter) and goaltender Ryan Cornell’s 11 saves, the No. 3 Blue Wave knocked off No. 2 seed New Canaan 13-7 in the FCIAC semifinals.
“We didn’t play our best game, and it’s tough to lose,” New Canaan head coach Chip Buzzeo told NewCanaanite.com. “Darien played a great game. They rode us really hard.”
Darien, who improved to 15-3 overall with the win, will take on No. 4 seed Ridgefield in the conference championship, as the Tigers upset top-seeded Greenwich 13-6 in the other semifinal. New Canaan (14-4) will next play in the Class M state tournament. Pairings will be announced on Thursday at noon.
The start of the game pitted New Canaan on defense early and often. Darien possessed the ball for almost all of the first four minutes of the contest. At 1:14 in, attackman Kevin Lindley took a feed from teammate Ian Burgoyne in front and put it past New Canaan goaltender Drew Morris for the early 1-0 Wave lead.
Less than two minutes later, Minicus notched his first score of the evening to put Darien up 2-0, after receiving a pass from Hudson Hamill while charging through the slot.
Coach Buzzeo took a timeout when New Canaan gained the offensive zone for the first time. 18 seconds later junior midfielder Peter Swindell put the Rams on the board by netting one from 10 yards out.
One minute and 12 seconds after that, co-captain Justin Meichner evened things up at two after his fellow co-captain Michael Kraus picked up a ground ball and fed Meichner on the run. With only the goalie in front of him, Meichner faked out Cornell and beat him high over his right shoulder.
The game wasn’t tied for long as just 42 seconds later Hamill found the back of the net to put the Blue Wave back on top, 3-2.
After Cornell made a save on New Canaan midfielder Ryan O’Connell’s shot attempt, Darien went back on the attack and concluded the possession with another goal. Timmy Lochtefeld beat Morris to extend the Darien lead to 4-2.
Minicus then struck twice more before the final buzzer of the first quarter, putting the Wave up 6-2 heading to the second.
New Canaan cut into that deficit early in the second. 31 seconds into the quarter midfielder Kyle Smith worked through traffic to beat Cornell, making it 6-3 Darien.
The Rams would control the bulk of the offensive play for the next five minutes, sending five shots in the direction of the net with three of them on goal. Cornell, however, stopped them all.
Those saves loomed particularly large after Christian Trifone put Darien back on the board off a nice feed from Minicus to go up 7-3. The Blue Wave put another two goals on the board over the next 1:40 of play as Jack Book and Hamill scored, catapulting Darien to a 9-3 lead.
Max Begoon tallied one for the Rams on a feed from Smith to narrow the lead to 9-4 Darien, which was the score at halftime.
Coming out of the half, knowing that they had to put goals on the board, New Canaan’s offense was in control of possession early in the third quarter. The Rams recorded four of the quarter’s first five shots on goal. But again, Cornell stopped them all, including a spectacular save on a point-blank shot attempt from Kraus.
Cornell’s stellar play provided the Wave momentum and allowed their offense to keep on the attack, even with a five goal lead. With less than five minutes gone in the quarter, the Wave stretched the lead back to six goals, courtesy of Minicus’ fourth goal of the evening to make it 10-6.
16 seconds later, the Wave took their biggest lead of the game when Jack Kniffin put one past Morris for an 11-4 lead.
Kraus puled the Rams back within six with his second score of the game, making it 11-5, which would hold for the rest of the quarter.
Darien put another goal on the board early in the fourth quarter as 57 seconds in, Book found the back of the net again. Finlay Collins followed with a tally of his own, putting the Wave firmly in control, 13-5.
Meichner scored back-to-back goals to make it 13-7 and give New Canaan a glimmer of hope with just over six minutes left.
That was as close as Cornell and the Wave allowed the Rams to get.
“We have a lot of work to do before states,” said Buzzeo. “Thankfully, we have another tournament to play. And we’ll get back to work tomorrow.”
