Darien Lacrosse Leaves New Canaan Feeling Blue

New Canaan came out strong, but in the end the Rams couldn't hold off a Darien team intent on winning a sixth consecutive state championship. In the battle of the FCIAC unbeatens, the Rams came in second Saturday, falling to the Blue Wave, 11-5.

New Canaan  grabbed an early 2-0 lead on goals by Ian Knechtle and Cody Newton. Knechtle, a long strider, came up field with a defender right on him, but he shifted into over drive and got a bit of space, which was enough to beat Darien goalie Andrew West.

Newton's goal, which came with the quarter winding down, was the result of some nice moves on a tight defense. But with less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter, Darien got on the board, as Graham Maybell fed Brian Gleason, who beat New Canaan goaltender J.J. Granito.

The Rams struck again with 13 seconds left in the first when Sam Stanton snatched a ground ball in a crowd and fired it into the net for a 3-1 New Canaan lead.

Darien took over in the second quarter, however. Brian Annecchino, one of many speedsters for the Wave, scored the first of his three goals, followed by one from Alden Frelinghuysen a short time later to tie the contest.

"Once we started getting momentum we were able to get some goals," Annechino said. "We went hard on defense, too."

The Wave took the lead for good when Maybell swept around the cage and scored to put his team up, 4-3. Maybell's goal came with 12 seconds left before the break.

Darien started the second half with five consecutive goals, building its lead to 9-3. Blue Wave coach Jeff Bremeier attributed the turnaround to his middis, "who got us going."

"We got a lot of good looks when we got everybody involved," he added.

Maybell, Henry West and Ben Preston scored in the third quarter for Darien, which then got goals from Eric Parnon and Annecchino early in the fourth period.

New Canaan's Oliver Norton, on a nice feed from Henry Eschricht, finally ended Darien's run. But Case Matheis and Annecchino answered for Darien to make it 11-4

Norton registered the final goal of the contest.

"We got into trouble when we didn't make very good clearing passes," New Canaan coach Alex Whitten said. "Darien out-played and out-hustled us. A lot of our guys didn't show up today."

New Canaan looks to rebound at home against Westhill Tuesday.