In a smashing success, the girls rugby team worked together to dominate the Cambridge Rindge and Latin Falcons 52-5 on Friday, April 17 at Skyline, earning their second win of the season.

The Warriors played strongly from the start. After a steady advance by the Warriors that included senior Lila Hoffman executing a stunning spin move to evade the Falcon defense, senior Julia Vianello scored the first try early on in the game. The Warriors completely dominated for the rest of the first half, racking up point after point, to make the score 38-5 at halftime.

Head coach Jenni Laferriere said she was proud that what they had drilled in practice was translating to the game through the team’s cohesiveness.

“It was a really big team win. We’re loving how the team is playing together and implementing our systems, so I’m feeling really good about that,” Laferrie said. “ We were really able to successfully do what we were practicing, especially on attack.”

During the second half, the Warriors continued to score consistently, but the Falcons put up a decent effort at defense, and both teams were suspended in multiple scrums for about 10 minutes. As they battled for the ball, senior and captain Zaira Johnson said she encouraged her teammates to keep pushing.

“I wanna make sure they hear me because I’m not a forward, but I’m sure that doing scrums can be so physically and mentally draining. They just need that one positive encouragement, that one voice in their ear saying ‘you got this,’ and that really helps,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the strong team bond off the field helps them work their best during the game.

“We’re all really good friends, and in practice we all have a lot of fun and every day we all look forward to it,” Johnson said. “When you have that on the field, connection works so much better because we all understand each other and we also understand each other as players.”

According to Laferrie, Hoffman won the “man of the game” title from the coaches for her consistent work in maintaining a fierce offense against the Falcons and the ability to make tackles, steal the ball and take it up the line to score points. Despite her tactile plays, Hoffman said she wasn’t pondering much about what to do during the game.

“When I’m playing, I don’t even really think that much. It’s all adrenaline; you’re just trying to run through and keep going,” Hoffman said. “Everyone was so supportive, working so hard and you just wanna do a good job for your teammates.”

Hoffman said a few moments were especially thrilling; separate plays when junior Ellie Haberkern and Vianello had break-through runs through the Falcons’ defense to score points for the Warriors.

“[Haberkern] and [Vianello] both had some insane runs through the middle. They were breaking through 15 tackles and squaring off,” Hoffman said. “Those are always really fun to watch because you’re rooting for them and you’re watching them just do these crazy things.”

According to Hoffman, the team has two upcoming games against Lincoln Sudbury and Belmont, which may prove to be more challenging. However, now that they’ve come together to secure two high-scoring wins in a row, the team’s confidence is boosted.

The goal for the rest of the season is clear to Lafferrie.

“Win the [championship],” Lafferrie said. “The biggest thing is that we just wanna keep playing the way that we’re playing and that will bring us into the playoffs and hopefully that will bring us to the state championships.”