Hartland Ladies Lacrosse Finished Number One in Division

By Aaron Skomial

VARSITY

The Hartland women’s lacrosse team woke up early on Saturday morning, boarded a bus at 7:45am to travel to Plymouth, and played their last regular season game of the year.  They looked a little sluggish and more methodical to start the game, but managed to turn it on and dominate the game.

Hartland worked the ball up and down the field without issue and slowed Plymouths progress throughout the game. The defense looked much improved and held Plymouth’s top scorer to just three goals.  The team managed to control the ball and pick up groundballs all over the field allowing them to dominate the day.

At half time, Hartland led 8-3. Various personnel were switched up during the game and allowed the team to work on different scenarios throughout the game.  Some seldom used players received extended playing time to allow those players to get some game action prior to the playoffs. 

The morning was hot and so was the offense on the day.  Hartland featured ten different scorers on the day. Natalie Sochaki paced the offense with four goals.  Ryan Skomial followed with three goals and two assists. Haley Crouse and Courtney Lee provided two goals each. Annie Quinn, Rachael Sharpe, Amy Longe, Rachel Gibbs, Taylor Pryde, and Sara Barnett rounded out the scoring with one goal each.

At the end of the game, Hartland huddled up and cheered their 17-6 win over Plymouth. Hartland finished 16-3-1 this season. They finished the regular season as the top ranked team in division one according to laxpower.com.  They now set their goals on winning a state championship. The season has just been shortened to five games to win all the marbles.

The first team to be dealt with is Huron Valley on Wednesday at 7pm in Lake Orion. Hartland has defeated Huron Valley twice this season 17-11 and 17-10. 

They will not look past this dangerous team. Each game could be your last, and summer comes much sooner than expected.  These girls will give it everything they have and I have no doubt they will achieve great things to finish the season. 

Junior Varsity

The JV squad travelled to Plymouth as well and had to pay even earlier than the varsity team.  The JV team has had a great season finishing 11-5-1.  Hartland took care of business on the final day of the season by winning 11-4 on Saturday morning. Adrian Martino led in the scoring column with three goals and four assists.  Danielle Porath followed that effort with four goals. Kristina Hollis augmented the scoring with two goals. Laura Kesterson and Sara Wanko added one goal each to finish the day.

Brooke Eicher was a wall in goal.  She saved 16 out of 20 shots to finish the season on a high note.  Congratulations to the JV team and coach Tim Bausack for a great season!