Wells-Vidal Leads McCann Tech Past Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – One team rode a fast start to its first win of the season, while the other, in a lot of ways, is just getting started on a rebuild.

 

Gabrielle Wells-Vidal scored five goals and set up two more Tuesday to lead the McCann Tech girls lacrosse team to a 17-3 win over Pittsfield.

 

Wells-Vidal scored four goals in a row in an eight-minute stretch of the first quarter to help the Hornets (1-1) take a 6-1 lead 12 minutes into the contest.

 

“It was nice to come out [strong],” McCann Tech coach Christian Chenail said. “We talked about how we don’t have the substitutes yet. We know it’s going to be a long game, and we’ve got to use what we can at the beginning.”

 

Wells-Vidal set up Natalie Tatro (three goals) for the game’s first score in the second minute.

 

Pittsfield (0-1) struck back when Lily Ferris scored the first of her three goals in transition to tie it.

 

From there, it was all McCann Tech, starting with Wells-Vidal’s goal off the ensuing draw.

 

After she tacked on three more goals, Jordyn Lloyd scored the first of her four goals on a free position to give the Hornets a five-goal cushion.

 

“Everyone across the board – even some of the younger players – was taking more aggressive tries with it, where in the past we might have hesitated more,” Chenail said. “A lot of our goals came off of solo stuff or penalty stuff – actually cutting in and forcing the defense to be in position, which was nice.”

 

Pittsfield was able to slow down the McCann Tech attack in the second quarter, getting to break down by seven goals at 8-2.

 

First-year Generals coach Molly West said she was pleased with the progression of her very young squad throughout the game.

 

“For me, this was kind of a formative assessment of how we get ready for different tests,” West said. “I’ve got probably 10 out of our roster of 20 for whom this is their first time ever playing lacrosse.

 

“I already have a long list of things we need to work on. But one thing I said to the girls all along as we’re rebuilding this program and rebuilding the culture is: Attitude and effort are the two things you can never replace. And I really thought we had a great attitude and showed great effort today.”

 

Lloyd and Taylor Ziemba (three goals) each scored twice in the third quarter, when McCann Tech extended its lead to 14-3 and brought the game to running time.

 

Zoe Kratz earned the win in goal for McCann Tech. Laniyah Gregory made 12 stops for Pittsfield.

 

Gregory, a junior, is one of the veterans for the Pittsfield-Taconic cooperative team, which only won a couple of games last spring and split its two matchups with McCann Tech.

 

“We have four great captains between Laniyah, Ell [Krobuth], Lilly [Ferris] and Asia [Smith-Moody], who have done a great job of saying, ‘It’s a failure, but you’ve got to keep working,’ “ said West, who has experience building programs after starting the team at Hoosac Valley.

 

“It’s just a lot of patience,” West said of the process. “Amy Meehan, when I first started coaching at Drury, was the varsity girls basketball coach. And she used to say a lot, ‘You’ve got to win the battle to win the wars.’ And so I think that’s kind of got to be our motto. We’ve got to chunk it down, break it down and win some of those little battles.

 

“And I think we’ll start to see that growth on the field. But it’s a lot of patience.”

 

Pittsfield is at Southwick on Friday. McCann Tech is back on the road Friday to face Lee.

 

Photos to come from this game.