The West Haven softball team opened its postseason with a trip to face the North Haven Indians on Wednesday afternoon in the SCC quarterfinals. After the Indians took a 3-0 in the bottom of the third, the Westies knew they had an uphill climb. But as they have done all year long, these Westies were not done yet. After Kailey Carrano singled and Kristal Rivas was drilled by a pitch to put two runners on in the top of the fourth inning, Sadie Roberts launched a long home run to center to even the game at 3-3.
In the top of the fifth inning, Ashlynn O’Keefe, who went 3 for 3 on the day, hit a looping ball over the pitcher’s head for an infield single and then Veronica Lynn singled to send O’Keefe to third base. O’Keefe would score on a passed ball and Lynn would come home on a Makenna White single to give the Blue Devils a 5-3 lead. But the Indians would rally for two runs in the bottom of the fifth and two, more in the bottom of the sixth to pull out a 7-5 victory over West Haven. Ivy Santos pitched a complete game in the circle for the Westies.
This week, the girls traveled to Norwalk on Tuesday for a first round CIAC playoff game with the Norwalk Bears. If victorious, the Blue Devils would then face the No. 1 seeded Norwich Free Academy Wildcats on Wednesday.
Saturday was not kind to the West Haven boys and girls lacrosse teams. On Saturday morning, the boys’ lacrosse team hosted the Conard Chieftains at Ken Strong Stadium.
The Chieftains pounced on the Westies, scoring early and often to take an 11-0 halftime lead on their way to a 16-3 victory, eliminating the Blue Devils from the CIAC tournament. Tyquan King finally got the Westies on the board 2:57 into the second half when he gathered in a rebound and found the back of the net to make it 11-1.
The Chieftains responded with the next, five goals to make it 16-1 before Joe Consorte scored the last, two goals of the game with 4:06 left and 20.7 seconds left for the 16-3 final. Kevin Moriarty made 17 saves between the pipes for West Haven.
On Saturday evening, the girls lacrosse team hosted the Trumbull Eagles in a CIAC qualifying round game. The Eagles took a 1-0 lead just 1:18 into the game but, the Blue Devils responded 1:36 later, when Madisyn Crotta scored to knot the game at 1-1. Unfortunately for the Westies, the Eagles would score the next, six goals over the span of ten minutes to take a 7-1 lead. Mary McDaniel scored with 11:43 left in the first half to cut the lead to 7-2.
After the Eagles padded their lead with two, more goals, Gabi Prisco scored her first of the game with 1:20 left in the half to make it 9-3 heading into the break.
The Westies looked to make a game of it and 1:59 into the second half, Mary McDaniel scored her second of the game to make it 9-4. The Eagles got the next, three goals to increase their lead to 12-4. Gabi Prisco scored with 16:47 left and again 3:01 later to make it 12-6.
Trumbull scored three to get the lead to 15-6 before Prisco, who ended her West Haven High School career with her fourth and fifth goals of the game with 5:42 and 4:08 left for the 15-8 final.
Prisco finished the season with 68 goals and was named the SCC Division II Player of the Year. Nicole Gaston made 19 saves in goal for West Haven.