Wednesday Night Lights in West Hartford

Any athletic event pitting Hall and Conard High Schools against one another doesn’t need additional build up.

But that’s exactly what the Warriors and Chieftains field hockey teams found in their final regular season match, as the two rivals played the very first game under the newly installed lights at McKee Stadium.

And the game, pitting two evenly matched opponents with nearly identical records, ended the way it probably should have: in a 1-1 draw.

Ann-Margaret Sullivan’s first half goal put Hall High up 1-0, but Conard’s Elizabeth Christensen levelled just three minutes after the interval. The two teams played a scoreless 7-on-7 overtime to earned the draw.

It’s a match, which drew town officials such as Town Manager Ron Van Winkle and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Karen List, that the girls on both teams are unlikely to forget.

“We [were]  psyched,” said Hall head coach Carlie Dailey said. “The girls got together before on the bus and they were just getting loud. The first game under the lights for the entire town, what else could we want?”

List, for her part, thanked the entire community for the collective effort in bringing lights to Conard and Hall High Schools.

“This is a lot of people who worked together, from our elected officials like Andy Fleischmann to Beth Bye to the community parents Unite for Light … [Athletic Director] Betty [Remigino’s] constant effort, our crews and grounds people who worked in collaboration with the town, it’s a great example of the community coming together,” List said.

Both Hall and Conard will head into the state Class L tournament. Hall (9-5-2) has endured a late-season swoon that saw it winless in its last six matches, while Conard (8-5-3) has been winless in its last four matches.