NORWALK- The Beckman Lady Patriot defense annihilated the John Glen Lady Eagles in a competitive game. The JV squad left Beckman at 1:45 PM on Tuesday afternoon, December 12, to travel to John Glenn High School for their sixth game of the year. Although the game wasn’t scheduled to begin until 5:00 PM, they had to leave early so they could support the Freshman squad at their three o’clock game.

The bus ride to Norwalk was a quiet one, as coach John Swoboda wanted his team to be mentally prepared for the game. The girls were to “put on [their] headphones,” declared Swoboda, and think about what they were going to do in the game.

Upon arrival at the John Glenn gym, the squad changed out of their jeans and blue team shirts and into their blue road uniforms and red warm-ups. The girls then sat together in the stands to support the Freshmen (who won 48-5) and do homework.

After five minutes of stretching and warm-up drills, the starters, Jessica Lee, #13, Liz Gonzalez, #25, Cynthia Perales, #24, Nhi Duong, #23, and Samantha Schutte, #30, stepped onto the court. Liz stepped to the center of the court for the jump ball to mark the beginning of the game. After a juggle in possession, the Lady Eagles came up with the ball but did not manage to score. Beckman was the first to score in the game with a lay-up from Liz Gonzalez. The Lady Patriot defense was tough on the Lady Eagles. Although there was suspect officiating leading to a double bonus situation for John Glenn, the Beckman team was able to keep them to only 11 points in the first half.

Coach Swoboda preached, “run the offense and stay tough on defense” during halftime. The team came out ready to win. They remained aggressive on defense throughout the game and held the adversary to only 18 points in the 32 minutes of the game. BHS executed the offense well. Team effort was evident when the highest scorer of the game, Yasel Pons, #11, had only eight points. Almost everyone contributed at least two points to the total of 49.

At the conclusion of the game, the Lady Patriots “put it in” and exhibited sportsmanship by cheering, “1-2-3, JOHN GLENN” and shaking the opponents’ hands. After a brief team meeting, the JV girls put their warm-ups back on and headed for the bus. An enthusiastic applause came from the girls when Coach Swoboda announced the victory of both JV and Freshman teams at John Glenn. After arriving at Beckman the girls formed a team huddle and hollered “FAMILY” on the count of three, said their good-byes, and, with a feeling of success, went home. With the victory at John Glenn, the JV girls advance their record to three wins and three losses.