Greenwich High School’s girls lacrosse team was pleased to be right back in action today, just two days after suffering a one-sided loss to Wilton.

“Today was a beautiful day to play lacrosse and there was a lot of positive energy on the field,” said Greenwich senior Noey Johnson, one of the Cardinals’ four captains. “Everybody was super excited to play together and not as individuals, as a team.”

Once today’s game against visiting Fairfield Warde commenced, the Cardinals wasted little time showing how psyched up they were to compete, as they imposed their will from the start.

Sophomore attack Emma Abbazia scored five of her game-high six goals in the first half and Johnson finished with four goals and one assist for Greenwich, which coasted to a 17-1 victory over Warde at sunny Cardinal Stadium.

The Cardinals, who brought an 11-0 lead into halftime, received three goals and two assists from junior midfielder Sophia Neitzell and two goals and five assists from junior attack Cece Tauber. Greenwich dominated possession throughout, effectively ran its settled offense and converted a number of its opportunities in transition.

“I think we came into the game really excited and ready to win and we talked about working together a lot, so that’s what we wanted to do and we succeeded,” said Abbazia, who has been difficult for the opposition to defend throughout the season.

The Cards were coming off a humbling 16-2 setback at home against Wilton – one of the premier teams in the FCIAC. Greenwich, which sports a strong 6-2 record, acknowledges how tough a team Wilton is, but it was off its game when it hosted the Warriors on Thursday.

“Games like these helps with opportunities and things we’ve been working on and I thought it was a great job by our team,” said Neitzell (one of the team’s captains) of the squad’s performance today. “We had a lot of assists. Every week brings new challenges and opportunities and I’m excited about our upcoming games.”

Abbazia scored five times, while Johnson and Neitzell each tallied twice in the first half for Greenwich, which limited the Mustangs’ possessions and overall opportunities.

“We played really well, we’ve been working on playing as a unit, as a whole and I think we did that today,” GHS junior defender MK Savio said. “We had multiple people help with getting the ball in the back of the net. We saw it on transition, our passing was really clean and on defense we were working together, helping each other, sliding to when people needed help and I think it was a really good team effort and team win.”

Sophomore midfielder/attack Grace O’Connor and sophomore attack MK Frey notched one goal apiece for the Cardinals, while sophomore attack Liv Caminiti assisted on a goal for the victors, who were sparked on defense by Savio, junior Keira Young, junior Sophie Roth and junior Kaitlin Kelly.

“It’s really hard to bounce back from that type of loss (Wilton loss), but all we could do is think about the future and I think we did well this game,” Abbazia said.

Abbazia posted five draw controls for GHS, which travels to Trumbull on Thursday, then hosts Fairfield Ludlowe on Saturday in a rematch of last season’s CIAC Class L Tournament quarterfinals, won by the Falcons.

“We did a really good job of cheering each other on and playing together today,” Johnson said. “It’s the best feeling when everybody gets to show what we’ve been working on in practice and everybody gets to make an influence on the field.”