FALLS VILLAGE —Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s varsity boys lacrosse team lost a pair of heartbreakers this past week, after having entered the fourth and final periods of both games with a lead.
Saturday, April 12, away at Ellington (2-2), a hard bouncer slipped by the Housy goaltender with six seconds left on the clock. The goal gave Ellington a 4-3 win. Housatonic had controlled the ground ball game from start to finish, but just couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the net. Strong defensive play by the veteran unit of senior captain Charlie Horowitz, senior Jesse Becker and junior Matt Lancto (all returning starters) kept Ellington’s offense in check.
Housy had a 3-1 lead in the fourth quarter, but a couple fast-break transition goals and the buzzer beater tipped the victory toward Ellington, despite the heroic play of junior goaltender Kevin Diamond, who notched 12 saves in the loss.
Seniors Jonny Habacker (captain, attackman), Brian Dedonato (attackman), Tom Kennedy (captain, midfielder) and faceoff specialist Ben Wilbur (captain, midfielder) kept coming up with the loose balls, but the Housy shots were off the mark.
Habacker had one goal and two assists, Wilber scored one and junior attackman Gianpaul Ledevole scored one.
On Tuesday, April 15, underdog Housatonic played host to South Windsor (3-1).
Once again, Housatonic’s combustive mixture of strong defense and struggling offense provided a recipe for a cliffhanger. After giving up the opening goal, Housatonic rebounded and scored the next two, trading goals with South Windsor into the final period, with Housatonic holding a tenuous 4-3 lead.
But off-the-mark passes, dropped feeds, untimely penalties and difficulty clearing the ball from their defensive end kept the Housy players on their heels.
South Windsor scored twice early in the fourth quarter to take their first lead since the opening minutes, and Housy was then forced to pressure the ball outside their comfort zone when South Windsor tried to slow the pace down in an effort to milk the clock.
An untimely two-minute penalty against Housatonic kept the Mountaineers from mounting a comeback.
Once again, Housatonic’s hard-nosed defense kept them in the game to the end. South Windsor unleashed a barrage of shots at goalie Kevin Diamond, but his quick reflexes led to 15 saves. The close defense of Horowitz, Becker and Lancto played powerfully as a unit once again. But in the end, South Windor prevailed, 7-4.
Junior midfielder Brad Visconti had one goal and one assist, Kennedy made two assists, Habacker scored once, Wilber had one and junior attackman Nate Indorf added one.
Housatonic’s record is now 1-2. A week of home games continues on Thursday, April 17, against Suffield at 4:30, and against Newington on Saturday, April 19, at 11:30 a.m.
