NFA battles former coach in girls lacrosse matchup
Norwich Free Academy coach Eric Page called it an “interesting night, for sure.” Wildcats junior Hayleigh Young said it was “bittersweet.” And Waterford coach Taylor Shannon, who is in her first-year coaching at her alma mater after guiding NFA for five seasons, said Tuesday’s Waterford-NFA girls lacrosse matchup was “definitely hard.”
In a contest with some unique storylines, the Lancers scored four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter and held off the Wildcats’ 12-3 under the lights at Waterford High’s Alumni Turf Field.
Victoria Sturm, Madison LaForte, Adyson Wiseman and Quinn Brigham each scored multiple goals for Waterford, which improved to 11-1.
The night’s biggest tally, however, was the number of hugs Shannon gave her former players during the pregame introductions.
“It was good seeing her,” Young said. “It’s hard to play against an old coach. I love her so much. She’s amazing. It was bittersweet to play against her.”
Shannon is also the girls soccer coach at NFA, which captured their first ECC tournament championship last fall. And Young, along with Leah Burchman, Hailey Iozzia, and Alex Tabilas played both soccer and lacrosse for Shannon.
“It’s always so hard,” Shannon said.
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Page was Shannon’s assistant coach the past two seasons. Page’s daughter, NFA junior forward Molly Page, grew up in Waterford and is one of the ECC’s leading goal scorers.
“Obviously, I have a relationship with our players because I’ve known them since sixth grade,” said Shannon, who is a physical education teacher in Waterford. “But Eric has coached a lot of these guys since they were young too. He knows all of our secrets and we know all of their secrets so it was the battle of the secrets. It made for a hard, good competition.”
The Wildcats (7-5) rallied from a 6-1 halftime deficit on goals from senior Alice-Ann Rourke and sophomore Maeve Combies.
“They gave us a battle,” Shannon said. “Their defense looked really good. They slid, they have really good footwork, they have athletes on the field. They shut us down quite a bit so kudos to them.”
Leading 6-3, Sturm gave the Lancers some breathing room with a pair of goals late in the third quarter.
Waterford’s stingy defense gave NFA fits. Page was held to just one assist, while Young scored the first of three Wildcat goals in the first half.
“If you have a lot of your offense go through one person you’re susceptible to that one person being stopped sometimes,” Eric Page said. “If the other team really focuses on that, then you’re in trouble. So that’s what it was. It would have been more fun if it had gone the other way tonight but Waterford’s a powerful team.”
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Page guided NFA to three ECC championships during his 17-year stint (2001-2018) as head coach. The program’s numbers are a little down this season but the Wildcats have already qualified for the Class L state tournament.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Page said. “We’re the smallest team in the league. We’re trying to rebuild the program and these girls are really working hard. We’re having a great year. We qualified for states so that’s a big one for us. Hopefully, we’ll finish up strong.”
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich Free Academy battles former coach in girls lacrosse matchup
