What you need to know from Round 1 of CIAC boys lacrosse tournaments

MADISON — It looked like the game of the day in the first round of the CIAC boys lacrosse tournaments, and for 12 minutes, Wednesday’s Class M first-round meeting between St. Joseph and Hand, at Madison’s Surf Club, was all that. Then came thunder and (distant) lightning, and the game was never the same. After a 30-minute weather delay, the Tigers scored the only five goals of the second quarter and turned a tie game after one quarter into a 15-9 win. “In the locker room (during the delay) it was mostly talking about just intensity, getting all the ground balls and just coming out on fire,” said Hand senior defender Jack Gara, who helped force turnovers and deny the Cadets a shot for the first 10 minutes of the second quarter. “We kind of came out flat, and they were playing good lacrosse in the first quarter. We decided to match their intensity and just show them what we could do.” The Tigers outshot St. Joseph 25-5 in the middle two quarters and outscored last year’s Class S champs 9-2. Hand continues on in the tough top half of the bracket and will visit Class M favorite Wilton in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Otherwise, there weren’t a whole lot of surprises but for maybe a few margins of victory. Top Performances Aiden Fletcher, Notre Dame-West Haven: Sacred Heart commit scored six goals and two assists in the Green Knights’ 20-8 Class M win over East Lyme. Dom Basti and Cooper Savoy added seven points apiece. Will Harris, Weston: Scored four goals (including his 100th) and four assists in the Trojans’ 20-1 Class S win over Granby. Nico Bilbao scored five goals on five shots, and Duncan Craine forced three turnovers. Charlie Howard, Staples: He paced the Wreckers with seven points, including five goals, in Staples’ 22-1 Class L win over NFA. Tyler Clark also scored five goals. Spencer Liston, Wilton: Went 14-for-14 on faceoffs and added two assists in a 17-2 win over Pomperaug. Matt Minicus, Darien: The senior had seven points, including four assists in the 12-goal first quarter of the Blue Wave’s 22-1 Class L win over Westhill. Sam Sisk, Hand: The junior attackman scored four goals and assisted on four others as the Tigers pulled away from St. Joseph 15-9 in Class M. Jimmy Stratton, Sheehan: Had seven points in a 17-4 Class S win over Morgan. Seeded Upsets Class L No. 11 New Canaan 14, No. 6 Glastonbury 4: Much like the Rams’ 7-1 win in the regular season, the margin was decisive here. Now on to Ridgefield, which beat New Canaan 13-5 three weeks ago. Class M No. 15 Avon 11, No. 2 Watertown 4; No. 10 Notre Dame-West Haven 20, No. 7 East Lyme 8: They’ll meet each other on Saturday, the only all-double-digit quarterfinal of the 12. No. 9 Barlow 11, No. 8 Farmington 7: Solid showing for Farmington against a team that was expected to win. Class S was straight chalk, seeds 1-8. Quarterfinals to watch (The “God-given” time for Saturday’s quarterfinals is 3 p.m., but consider them all TBA for a while unless noted.) Class L No. 8 Greenwich at No. 1 Darien: They’ve met twice since May 17: Darien has won 9-8 in double overtime and 8-5 in regulation. No. 5 Fairfield Prep at No. 4 New Milford: New Milford’s fine year, including an SWC final berth, goes on after a big win over Fairfield Warde. This is a different kind of team from Fairfield, though. Class M No. 5 Hand at No. 4 Wilton: One of those “this could be the final” games, two talented teams who are ranked in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll (Wilton 2nd, Hand 9th). No. 9 Barlow at No. 1 Cheshire: The Rams won a 10-8 game on May 13 on the road at Barlow. Flip the site for this one. Class S No. 6 Somers at No. 3 Canton: After a decisive, impressive win over New Fairfield, the Warriors will meet Somers for the fourth time this year. They split two 16-12 games in the regular season, each winning at home, before the Spartans won the NCCC title 16-11 on the road last week. No. 5 Weston at No. 4 Sheehan, 1 p.m.: The host Titans have won eight of their past nine and with a win would match Sheehan’s 2019 team with 14 wins and a semifinal spot. In their way are only the favorites to win this thing. Conference breakdown If it floats your boat, there are six FCIAC teams left in Class L, and three will be in the semifinals, with either the SWC’s New Milford or the SCC’s Fairfield Prep to interlope. Class M has three SCC teams, and all could reach the semis. There are three CCC teams, but Wethersfield and East Catholic meet Saturday. And there’s SWC Barlow and FCIAC Wilton. In Class S, there are three NCCC teams remaining, including that title rematch. The rest is a sampler: there’s one CCC team, one SWC team, one SCC team, one ECC team and one Shoreline team. Save you the arithmetic: Playing Saturday will be seven FCIAC teams, five from the SCC, four CCC, three apiece from the SWC and NCCC, and one each from the Shoreline and the ECC. This report has been updated with further statistics from Wednesday’s games. mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp

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