Warriors host Malden Catholic tomorrow night at Landrigan Field
THE WMHS boys’ lacrosse team’s seniors were honored recently at Landrigan Field. The seven seniors are pictured with their families. The seniors (from left to right) are Braedan Langlois, Henry Miller, Austin Collard, PJ Iannuzzi, Pat Leary, Ty Collins, and Justin Sullivan. The Warriors are hoping to earn a win in their first tourney game as they host Malden Catholic in a quarterfinal game tomorrow at Landrigan. (Donna Larsson Photo)
Published in the June 2, 2017 edition.
By JIM SOUTHMAYD
WAKEFIELD — Graduation ceremonies will be held tomorrow morning at Wakefield Memorial High inside the Charbonneau Field House. Tomorrow night, the Warrior boys’ lacrosse team will be looking to move on as well.
The undefeated WMHS boys’ lacrosse team hosts Malden Catholic in a Div. 2 North quarterfinal game at 5 p.m. at Landrigan Field.
The Warriors enter the Div. 2 North tourney as the top-seeded team with a perfect 18-0 regular season record. Wakefield had a bye for the first round of play and awaited its opponent which is Malden Catholic after the Lancers crushed Danvers, 11-2, in a Div. 2 North first round game on Wednesday night at Donovan Field.
The Lancers (9-10) were seeded eighth in the 10-team field and the Falcons (11-8), the ninth seed, were sent packing by Malden Catholic.
Connor Bond, Mark Delory and Brett Machado all scored for the Lancers in the win over Danvers.
For Danvers, Mike Daras and Colby Holland had one goal each and Matt McCarthy had one assist on Wednesday night.
Wakefield is not unfamiliar with Malden Catholic having defeated the Lancers by a 13-5 on Saturday, April 8 in the Warriors’ second contest of the season.
Malden Catholic posted wins over Arlington (14-13), Triton (9-6), Woburn (14-7), Gloucester (14-4), Arlington Catholic (15-4), Danvers (8-5), Arlington again (13-7), and Austin Prep (9-5).
Most of those victories were in non-league competition as the Lancers didn’t fare quite as well in the Catholic Central Conference against many Div. 1 schools.
The Lancers’ defeats came against Wakefield, BC High (14-0), St. John’s Prep (12-1), Beverly (10-3), Catholic Memorial (10-9), Xaverian (15-1), BC High again (12-0), St. John’s Prep again (7-5), Catholic Memorial again (10-7), and Xaverian again (8-5).
Wakefield’s path to the Div. 2 North final will feature some familiar teams as the Warriors have faced and defeated Winchester, Beverly, Melrose, Burlington, Shawsheen Valley Tech, and MC, the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth-seeded teams, respectively, in Div. 2 North. Wakefield didn’t face seventh-seeded Marblehead or the ousted ninth and 10th ranked Danvers and Northeast Metro Tech squads.
The question remaining is how will the Warriors come out and play tomorrow night. Graduation is a big distraction with seven seniors on the team. Also Wakefield hasn’t played a game since May 22, so its had 11 days off.
The seniors on the team are PJ Iannuzzi, Austin Collard, Henry Miller, Braedan Langlois, Pat Leary, Ty Collins, and Justin Sullivan.
The juniors on the roster include Ryan Chambers, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Nolan Collins, Tyler Drago, Dan Cataldo, Dan Kerrigan, Dylan Frank, Alex Joly, Robert Keegan, and Devin O’Brien.
The sophomores on the roster include Anthony Forziati, Tom Harrington, and Robert Guida. The lone freshman is Mason Brennan.
Should the Warriors win, they will face a M.L. Freedom division rival in the semifinal round on Tuesday, June 6 at Landrigan Field. Wakefield will face the winner of a quarterfinal game between Burlington and Melrose at Fred Green Memorial Field. That quarterfinal game will also will be played tomorrow night at 5 p.m.
