AUGUSTA — Cony played effective, high pressure defense Monday afternoon and beat Gardiner 13-3 in a girls lacrosse game.

Cony won it’s fourth straight game this season while Gardiner drops to 0-3.

From the opening game draw, the Rams were intent on pressuring the Tigers on both ends of the field. Cony was exceptional in quickly applying defensive tactics in the attacking zone. Gardiner found it difficult to move the ball up field with the Ram attackers double-teaming the ball.

“We did a good job of pressuring the ball when we would give it up on the offensive end,” Cony coach Gretchen Livingston said. “We were double teaming on their clear outs and it worked.”

Cony spent a large portion of the game firing shots at the Gardiner goal as a result of its defensive effort. The Rams finished with a 31-14 advantage in shots. Gardiner goalie Madison Cutler made 13 saves, while Cony goalie Katrina Duncan had eight.

“Cutler was really solid for us in goal,” Gardiner coach Andy Haskell said. “We had a hard time getting into transition. We kept getting bottled up in the back.”

Midfielders Mia Diplock and Chelsea Begin led the Rams attack, scoring five and four goals, respectively. Diplock opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the game, firing a shot into the top right corner on a solo effort.

Diplock found the net a second time at 15:14, followed 14 seconds later by a Begin strike that gave Cony a 3-0 lead. Diplock and Begin used their quickness and dodging skills to get past Tiger defenders for open shots close to the goal.

Gardiner’s Allyson Day cut the margin to 3-1 on a tight shot at 11:34 of the first half but the Rams would score three straight (two by Begin, one by Diplock) to take a 6-1 lead. Gardiner’s Brooke Davis scored with 29.6 seconds left in the half.

Cony’s defense of Josie Lee, Hayley Quirion, Erika Burns and Michele Bolduc helped keep the ball in the attacking end for long stretches in the second half. Begin and Renee Dugal scored to give Cony an 8-2 lead.

“Our big thing today was putting defensive pressure on Gardiner and communicating,” Burns said. “We work a lot on our offense double teaming and today we did a great job of it.”

Cony scored five consecutive goals to end the game on quality passing around the crease. Diplock scored a pair, Heather Leet added two goals and Dugal one.