MONTCLAIR- The draw control, like the face-off in the boys’ version of the sport, has increasingly become part and parcel of the mosaic in terms of utmost importance in how a lacrosse game transpires.
Face-off schools have been flourishing for years and the girls have their own specialized coaches for the all-important draw control.
Enter Kent Place sophomore sensation Addison Quinn, who won 17 draw controls and simply dominated that vital facet of the game as the No. 3 ranked Dragons were able to use long possessions to build a big, early lead and then eventually secure what became a hard-fought 9-7 NJIGLL Stars & Stripes White Division victory over Montclair Kimberley Academy on a sunny and comfortably warm Thursday afternoon at the Cougars’ Van Brunt Field.
The younger Quinn, whose senior sister Caitlyn is another vital cog in the Dragons’ attack, combined for five of their team’s nine goals. Their mom, Ashley Quinn, is the veteran head coach for the surging Union County team which remained undefeated, and is appearing more and more like a top title contender to keep an eye on in this year’s NJSIAA Non-Public state tournament.
Addison’s proficiency on draw controls helped generate an explosive first quarter which set the tone for the entire contest even with a spirited comeback by MKA (5-4, 2-2).
“Possessions are a big part of this sport, and once we control possessions, we control the pace of game as unit,” said the sophomore standout, who increased her season team-leading goal total to 30 and draw controls to 111. “I worked really hard during this past off-season with my trainer to work on my rotational, and our communication in the circle so far this season has been really good.
“I have to give all the credit back to my teammates for always supporting me, and once we win the draw, we have the opportunity to also have more patience on offense, we can slow down, and have a better pace.”
MKA coach Kristen Dawes said her team knows all about how good Addison Quinn is in that all-important area of the sport, but also realized that her Cougars couldn’t fully recover from such an early deficit fully enhanced by draw control dominance.
“Those early draws she won sucked the air out of our balloon,” said the second-year MKA head mentor. “They were getting possessions and we were turning the ball over too much with our mistakes on the offensive end.
“We bounced right back after that first quarter and we showed a lot of heart, never gave up, and definitely made a game of it where I thought that if we didn’t have that bad start it might have been a different story.
Our motto is, ‘Never give up, no regrets,’ and I’m proud of the effort that our girls gave out there in battling right to the end once again.”
MKA was playing its second important contest in three days against a top-flight Union County team, having been edged by perennial state title contender Oak Knoll, 8-6, this past Tuesday.
After MKA junior Bebe Scuorzo scored the game’s first goal off a free position with 7:24 left in the opening quarter, Caitlyn Quinn quickly knotted matters less than a minute later to begin a barrage of seven straight goals, with Addison and Caitlyn Quinn, Molly Brozowski, Cate Collins and Kaitlyn Troiano all getting in the act.
MKA bounced right back with a 4-1 edge in the second quarter, including a pair of goals from the Cougars’ exciting freshman Sloane Dawes, and it was a much closer 8-5 game at the half.
