Last Friday, the varsity girls lacrosse team (9-9) headed to Ed Burke Stadium to take on the La Costa Canyon (LCC) Mavericks (15-2). Varsity head coach Kaitlin Doucette pointed out that “game days against a program like [LCC don’t] sneak up on you. You feel them building all week.”
“By Friday morning, my mind was already in it,” Doucette said. “I’d reviewed our scouting, thought through our draw circle matchups, our defensive assignments [and] how we wanted to attack their zone.”
Midfielder Molly Ogden (10) woke up that morning and “immediately” thought about the game and began to visualize how she wanted her peak performance to look.
Ogden and her teammates wore their Morgan’s Message t-shirts and uniform skirts to school, with an expectation for the seniors who participated in Senior Sweatshirt Day, organized by the school’s Associated Student Body (ASB).
“We got the shirts to commemorate Morgan, a Division I lacrosse player [who died by suicide] and remember that we are more than just athletes, we are human and that mental health is just as important,” midfielder and forward Marina Geringer (10) said.
After fifth period, the team gathered to eat takeout from Panini Kabob Grill in the team room and spend quality time together.
Once school ended, Ogden did some wall ball to make sure her stick work was locked in, and then she headed to the team room to meet up with her teammates. The team did a pregame dance party so everyone could “get hype” before the game.
Before the game, Doucette began to envision how she would tackle the faceoff against the Mavericks.
“Against LCC specifically, I knew their draw game was going to be a factor, and it was,” Doucette said. “Their number three, Alexis Felago, ended up with 14 draw controls on the day, which is a number that can dictate the entire flow of a game. So pre-arrival, I’m thinking about how we counter that, how we keep possession, how we limit their transition opportunities.”
As a coach, Doucette notices the importance of the mental facet of sports performance.
“I’m also thinking about the mental side: who needs a quiet word before warmups, who needs energy, who I need to challenge a little,” Doucette said. “Coaching is as much psychology as it is strategy, especially with young women.”
To warm up, the lacrosse players ran around the track, stretched and did shuttle lines. Next, they did long passes with a partner and after the junior varsity match ended they took to the field to do shots on goal and the three versus two drill. Afterwards, the referees performed a stick check to make sure all the sticks were legal to play with.
Once the team is warmed up, all 25 of the players are announced on the loudspeaker.
“Everyone’s names get called, and when [each name does] we run through a tunnel of our teammates giving [each other] high fives and getting hype,” Ogden said. “After everyone [is announced] the national anthem plays, and in order to feel connected for this game, we put our hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and give it a squeeze and a tap [to spread positivity].”
As the clock struck 7 p.m., the whistle blew, and the Falcons marched on the field.
“The first few minutes of a game tell you almost everything about what the next hour is going to look like,” Doucette said. “Friday, I wanted to see us win draws and get into our offensive sets early. When you’re playing a team as talented as LCC, establishing a rhythm in the first quarter is critical.”
The girls faced problems early on, despite two “stand-out” performances from Reece Rohbrach (12) and Catherine Tonelli (12).
“Cathy was aggressive from the jump, and Reese was doing damage,” Doucette said. “But when you’re going against a team that controls the draw circle the way LCC did Friday, you’re always playing a little bit on their schedule rather than your own.”
Doucette expressed pride that the girls were “fighters,” even though the game resulted in a loss for the Falcons.
“We lost 11-18, and I’m not going to dress that up,” Doucette said. “But I want people to understand what they were watching. Cathy had an extraordinary individual performance: 14 shots, eight goals. For a player to carry that kind of offensive load against a CIF-caliber program speaks volumes about her ability and her competitiveness. Reese added four goals of her own. The problem wasn’t effort or talent. It was momentum. LCC’s draw circle control kept giving them extra possessions, extra opportunities and that compounds over four quarters.”
The team also faced other challenges during the game.
“We also dealt with three yellow cards, all head infractions, which put us down a player at critical moments,” Doucette said. “Those are the kinds of things that swing a close game further out of reach. We had the firepower. We just couldn’t sustain the possession needed to close that gap.”
One moment of strength for the team was in the third quarter.
“A specific moment that stood out to me in our game was in the third quarter when the other team called a timeout because we had scored three goals in a row,” Ogden said. “This moment was a confidence and energy boost [because] we could tell the other team was a little freaked out. We used this moment to gain momentum and come out stronger and with more energy.”
Doucette added that, “you don’t call timeouts against teams that aren’t bothering you.”
“There were moments where the momentum could have shifted our way,” Doucette said.“That’s what I want this group to hold onto: not the final score, but the moments inside the game where they made a team like LCC feel it.”
Reflecting on the game, Doucette honors the defense for their hard work.
“I have to give a massive nod to our defense, because what they did Friday doesn’t show up loudly in a final score, but it was remarkable to watch,” Doucette said. “Cameron Silver [(12)] led that unit with a composure and toughness that I genuinely cannot say enough about. We were holding on through defensive sets that lasted minutes at a time. Minutes. Against an LCC offense that was relentless and hungry. That takes an incredible amount of discipline, communication and heart. Our defenders were grinding possession after possession, refusing to break, making LCC work for everything they got.”
Doucette believes the main cause for the team’s defeat against LCC is that they spent “too much game time at the defensive end.”
“That’s not a character flaw, that’s a chess match we’re going to keep getting better at,” Doucette said. “But the fact that our defense held together the way it did, for as long as it did, against that caliber of opponent, that’s something this program should be proud of. Cameron Silver set the tone back there, and her teammates followed her lead every single minute.”
Once the game wrapped up, the Falcons said their goodbyes and headed home.
“I cleaned up the field and said ‘hi’ to my [club teammates who are] on the other team,” Ogden said. “Finally, I got dinner, then took a shower and went to bed after the long day.”
Looking towards the rest of the season and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs, Doucette wants her players to take this game as a lesson and continue working toward their goals collectively.
“I want us to keep getting sharper,” Doucette said. “Draw circle dominance, limiting penalties, sustaining pressure for full four-quarter stretches: those are the things standing between us and where I know we can be. The talent is here. Their performance on Friday against a program like LCC proves that. My hope is that we take every lesson from this game and let it fuel the back half of our season.”
Doucette is hopeful for the program’s future, and with 11 underclassmen on the varsity team, she has high hopes for the next couple of years and beyond.
“I’m proud every single day of what this community has built,” Doucette said. “The culture runs deep, the commitment is real, and I genuinely believe the best is still ahead for this group.
