Varsity 14, Laguna Hills 6

Trabuco Hills Girls Lacrosse Varsity’s 2013 season is officially underway — and it looks like there may be sunny days ahead. However, it was in the chill of the evening that our Lady Mustangs took the field at Laguna Hills High School on Wednesday and emerged with a 14-6 victory.

If patience is to be a motto for this season, it was evident in the first 5 minutes of the contest. Laguna Hills controlled play and set up camp around the Mustang net, but a solid defensive effort kept them out of the scoring zones and eventually resulted in play moving quickly to the other end of the field, with Megan McIntye converting on an opportunistic shot to open the scoring. McIntyre would set the pace for the Mustangs, netting 5 goals on the evening; she also added an assist. But it was a solid team effort that would carry on throughout the game, a positive sign for Coach Scott Leong’s squad.

McIntyre’s goal was followed quickly by a score from Melanie Leong, then a quick stick goal from McIntyre to Jackie Huse. McIntyre then scored on a quick stick of her own with the assist going to Hannah Redwine on a beautiful feed. After another tally from McIntyre, the score stood at 5-0 after 11 minutes of play. Laguna Hills stiffened their defense and upped the level of physical play, but Trabuco Hills responded brilliantly. Niki Neely stepped up a superb effort, sacrificing her body on several occasions to draw charging penalties and to provide defensive strength when the Hawks attempted to turn the momentum with their speed. The half came to a close when Kendall Derbyshire controlled the ball off of the draw, fought off several checks, and delivered a perfect feed to Hope Dodd for the score with just 3 seconds remaining. Score at halftime: Trabuco Hills 9, Laguna Hills 2.

The Lady Hawks came out with a bit more resolve in the 2nd half, spending long periods of time in the Mustang defensive zone, but great teamwork kept the Mustangs in control. Kelsey Tapia made a superb play in battling for a ground ball with 3 opposing players, which resulted in a quick score by Redwine with a nice assist going to Maidson DuMond. More depth was exhibited when Delaney Shelton, seeing her first real action after missing more than 3 months with a dislocated kneecap, created a match-up problem for the Hawks defense and made a perfect feed to Dodd for the score on a beautiful timing play. Jenelle Phillips closed out the scoring for the Mustangs, scoring from the slot as time was winding down. Not to be forgotten in all of the offense was the superb goaltending performance of Cyrena Malkowski , effectively defending her own airspace by intercepting a number of passes that came through as well as recording a very solid 15 saves on the evening.

Trabuco Hills showed great resolve in this opening game victory, adjusting well to their opponents’ strategies while sticking to their own gameplan.

Record: 2-1-1

Next game: Saturday, at LA/OC Shootout at Laguna Hills