Wakefield girls lacrosse blows by Heritage

Even with a 17-point win, most coaches in America can still find room for improvement. Wakefield girls’ lacrosse coach Denna Grasso is no exception.

Her Wolverines defeated Heritage 18-1 Friday night, but Grasso still managed to find one chink in the armour.

“We hit the goalie a lot,” Grasso said. “Our shot selection, especially in the first half, wasn’t good.”

Other than that, Grasso and the Wolverines were all smiles. And for good reason.

Seven different players scored for Wakefield and two – Megan Blawas and Andee Abrams – had hat tricks. Wakefield built a 14-0 halftime lead, thanks to deadly combo of Blawas and Hanna Anderson. Anderson has six assists in the first half, including the first three of the game, setting the tone for the night.

“I just try to always keep my head up and look for the open player so we can get as many goals on the board as we can,” Anderson said.

The junior set up Blawas for the first goal of the game, and within two minutes found Julie Anne Pretty (3 goals) and Abrams to build a quick 3-0 lead. Anderson also added two goals of her own in the first half to compliment Blawas, who finished with five goals on the evening.

“They work really well together,” Grasso said. “We play a lot of the two-game and Pretty and Savannah Boyd (1 goal) work well together off of our motion we work a lot on. We have a lot of different threats and we’re trying to get everyone a piece of the ball. You can’t just shut off one of our players, you’ll have to look at our whole attack.”

Through two games, Grasso can already tell she has a solid squad with a strong chance of repeating in the Cap-8.

“Hopefully we’re on our way,” Grasso said. “That’s a big part of our goal.”

They said it

“Because the schools are close in proximity and a lot of the girls went to middle school together, we have a bit of a rivalry … but I wasn’t expecting this,” Grasso said about the Wolverines 17-point win over Heritage.

Three to know

Megan Blawas, Wakefield: Senior Co-Captain had five goals for the Wolverines.

Hanna Anderson, Wakefield: Junior had six assists and two goals.

Andee Abrams, Wakefield: Sophomore finished with four goals versus Heritage.

By the numbers

18.5 - Goals per game average for the Wolverines through two games.

13 - Number of assists Wakefield had against the Huskies. Grasso said a main focus in practice has been to share the ball more. The players got the message loud and clear, getting assists on the first four goals of the game and nine out of 14 first-half goals.

“We want to work on making our goals assisted and working off plays instead of fast breaks,” Blawas said.

14 - Consecutive wins over Cap-8 opponents, dating back to last season.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Wakefield girls lacrosse blows by Heritage."