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New Canaan boys lacrosse coach Alex Whitten thought his team played well enough defensively to win Friday's Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship game. Offensively, however, it was a different story.
Fifth-seeded Greenwich built a 5-0 lead and held on to defeat the third-seeded Rams, 5-4, at Brien McMahon High School. The Cardinals (11-7) won their second title in four years. New Canaan (15-4), which last won the title in 2003, has lost its last four appearances in the championship game.
"The guys we needed to step up offensively didn't do it,'' Whitten said. "We threw the ball away all night. We gave their goalie the day off. All the credit in the world to Greenwich, but we just didn't play very well at all."
Greenwich jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first half. Alex Moeser, Eric Foote and Pete Cabrera scored in the first quarter, and Cabrera and Moeser connected in the second. Scott O'Brien put New Canaan on the board with 5:09 left in the half.
Joe Costigan, Ian Knechtle and Henry Eschricht scored in the third quarter to trim New Canaan's deficit to 5-4, but the Rams never got the equalizer. Goalie Daniel Feeney made eight saves for the Cardinals and Thomas Carey had seven for the Rams.
Whitten praised the play of Carey and the defense, but the offense's inability to solve Greenwich's defense frustrated him. "I think our guys played hard,'' Whitten said. "We just didn't execute when we had the chance to do it." New Canaan opens Class M play Thursday when it hosts Pomperaug.
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