Melrose girls lax finishes 9-4 after tourney loss
Published June 25, 2021
By JENNIFER GENTILE
LAWRENCE—The Melrose Red Raider girls lacrosse team fell to #8 seed Central Catholic in the opening round of the Div. 1 North playoffs on Monday, June 21 in Lawrence by a score of 15-4. Melrose (9-3) had entered playoffs as a #9 seed and met their match in the Raiders, who ran out to a quick 4-0 lead they never gave up.
Melrose would find the net four times behind the work of Sofia Pitcher (2 goals) Ali Maguire and Ava Palumbo, who had one goal a piece. Meanwhile, Central Catholic’s Grace Lydon and Lily Angluin did most of the damage on offense while Central Catholic goalie Grace Cashman had 10 saves at net.
Melrose head coach Matt Galusi credited Central Catholic for the tough match up. “This is a team that we’re rather familiar with and have a good relationship with,” he says. “They’re really well coached, and we knew we had to play as hard as possible. At the end of the day they’re a big private school and we’re a small public school, so the competition didn’t feel exactly even. They certainly earned their win, though.”
One factor on Monday was an injury to senior Ali Maguire who took a hit in the arm on a drive that forced her to be sidelined for the remainder of the game. That changed the dynamic on the team. Maguire, along with senior captain Ella DeCecca, are the team’s leading scorer. Says Galusi, “You could just see the air go out of the team a little bit after that, because Ali’s a big factor to our success.”
Monday’s loss marks the end of a chapter for this team. Melrose’s upperclassmen are lacrosse lifers who’ve been part of the fabric of the Melrose lacrosse community since early days of youth, so seeing them go will be tough for Galusi and his staff. “It’s going to be crazy to see a team that doesn’t consist of Megan and Maeve [Fogarty], Lizzy [Casey] on defense. With Jenna [McGuire] and Kate [Hubbard] we were just spoiled. I’ve coached many of these girls since kindergarten years. It’s been a pleasure,” he says.
He gave senior Paige Rocha a shout out for her efforts at the net on Monday and throughout the season. “She made a good amount of saves. Paige really evolved into a leader for us and, with our defense, helped us win this season.” Truly all his upperclassmen were a real key part to this team’s success this season. Says the coach, “My seniors were so consistent and good that it allowed us to focus on other areas of the game and help improve other components. For that I’m grateful.”
Departing this season are goalie Paige Rocha, senior captains Meghan Fogarty, Lizzie Casey, Ava Palumbo and Ella DeCecca, and seniors Maeve Fogarty and Corrine Francazio.
Coach Galusi is proud to see there will be more lacrosse for a few Red Raider seniors like Meghan Fogarty, who will continue her lacrosse career at Clarke University. “Many of these seniors could do well in college playing. I hope they continue it on the club level, too,” says the coach.
All in all, there are no regrets during this odd 2021 season. From the early days of mask-wearing, to the resuming of bus transportation, a lot shook out this spring.
“We would have liked a normal year,” he admits. “Some of these players were robbed of their junior year so there is a little bit of a sense of ‘what could have been’ with this group. With the late start we were behind the 8 ball like many others teams this season. But we enjoyed ourselves, have talent coming back, and we’re going to reset and focus on winning the league next year.”
