Imperfect ending

Boys’ lacrosse team comes up short in Div. 2 North final

Published in the June 12, 2017 edition.

By JIM SOUTHMAYD

CONCORD — Gone!

The Wakefield Memorial High boys’ lacrosse team’s hopes of a sectional championship and possibly a state title came to a disappointing end with a 7-6 upset loss to Beverly in the Div. 2 North final on Saturday night at Concord-Carlisle Regional High School’s Memorial Stadium.

The Warriors finished the season with a 20-1 record as their only setback of the year ended their bid for a perfect season.

Beverly, meanwhile, captured its second Div. 2 North title in four years and will face Hingham in a state semifinal game tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Norwell High School.

The Panthers (13-9) had a game plan of keeping the ball away from Wakefield’s attackmen and midielders and dominating the possession which they did. Beverly also tightened up its defense to give Wakefield all sorts of trouble on the offensive side of the field.

Still the game was a close one through compared to the 18-8 blowout the Warriors prevailed in during the regular season meeting at Landrigan Field.

The two teams were tied at 2-2 after one quarter and 3-3 at halftime. Wakefield was shut out in the third quarter and trailed 5-3 headed into the fourth period. Wakefield cut the lead to 5-4, but the Panthers tallied the next two goals to take a 7-4 lead. The Warriors got two goals back and had their chances in the final minutes. But Wakefield was unable to get the equalizer.

“They were able to maintain possession. That was a good game plan,” said Warrior head coach Andrew Lavalle. “They used it against Melrose and Winchester. That stall defense killed us. You can’t win the game if you don’t have the ball.”

While the ending was disappointing, Lavalle was quick to point out what a great season Wakefield had. The Warriors won a school record 20 games and captured its third straight Middlesex League Freedom division championship. Wakefield also played in its first sectional title game ever in the program’s history.

“We were more focused on the journey,” said Lavalle. “At the end of the day, it’s one loss. It’s just a game. Wakefield’s seen losses this past week. It was a great journey. The effort was certainly there.

Lavalle was referring to the passing of several Wakefield alumni over the past week and a half, Zachary Frank, Danielle Benedetto, and Logan Dunn.

Beverly head coach Jim LeSelva said his team didn’t know what to expect from the Warriors the first time the Panthers played them. This time the four-time Div. 2 North finalists were well prepared.

“We wanted to dominate the time of possession which we did,” said LeSelva. “We also played tighter on defense. Wakefield had a lot of speed and so good and fast. Offensively we wanted to keep the ball and take quality shots. Wakefield is so talented. We knew we had to control the ball to have a chance.”

Although he didn’t score a goal, midfielder Kevin Flaherty may just have been the MVP of the game. The Panther senior won the majority of the face-offs which allowed Beverly to execute its game plan of controlling the ball.

When the Warriors did get several chances senior goalie Kevin Morency made the saves. Beverly’s defense, which included starters senior Johnny Jones, junior Justin Loreti, and freshman Braeden Pratt, also did a fine job of containing Wakefield’s attackmen, including senior Austin Collard.

Collard scored just one goal as the Panthers committed to not letting him go on a tear like the seven-goal performance the senior had in the first meeting.

“If we held him to three goals, we felt good about our chances to win,” said LeSelva. “He scored one goal.”

LeSelva also said that his team benefitted from the time off from the end of the regular season and state tournament and regrouped.

“We’ve woken up. We were 10-9 during the regular season but we knew we were better than that,” said LeSelva. “We’ve played great in the playoffs. We’ve been to the North finals the past four years and are 2-2.”

That experience played a role as the Panthers were ready to play and had a chip on their shoulder after losing the sectional final to Winchester last year and from having lost to Wakefield several weeks ago.

Beverly won the opening face-off and tallied the first goal at 9:56. Junior attackman Matt Rawding finished off a pass by senior midfielder Kyle Chouinard to put the Panthers in front.

Wakefield came back and scored the next two goals.

Anthony Forziati, a sophomore attackman, buried a shot past Morency at 4:07 to tie the game at 1-1. Senior attackman Braedan Langlois (two goals, two assists) earned the assist on the goal.

Wakefield took a 2-1 lead at 1:44 as senior attackman Pat Leary found the back of the net. Junior goalie Ryan Chambers made a save and sent a long pass to Leary which resulted in the goal even though the net-minder wasn’t awarded an assist.

But Beverly tied the game at 2-2 with one second left in the first quarter. Rawding beat Chambers with a blistering shot.

The two teams traded goals in the second quarter as both defenses stood tall along with the two goals. Wakefield’s defense was led by junior Ryan Fitzpatrick, junior Nolan Collins, senior Ty Collins, junior Alex Joly, senior Justin Sullivan, and junior Devin O’Brien.

Nick DiLuiso tallied the Panther goal at 3:53 with Rawding getting the assist to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead.

But Collard scored his only goal of the game at 1:05 to knot up the game at 3-3 where it stood at halftime.

Wakefield was held scoreless in the third quarter, the only time this season that the Warriors didn’t score a goal.

Meanwhile the Panthers put two on the board. Senior midfielder Sam Abate scored at 6:51 and Chouinard finished off a DiLuiso pass at 1:07 as Beverly led 5-3 after three.

Forziati scored his second goal of the game burying a shot by Morency at 6:40 to cut the lead to 5-4. Langlois earned the assist.

But the Panthers bounced right back and made it a two goal game again as DiLuiso scored at 6:28. Abate earned the assist.

DiLuiso tallied his fourth goal of the game, which turned out to be the game-winner, at 4:20.

Wakefield didn’t quit, however, as it tallied two goals at 3:47 and 3:24. Langlois scored both goals unassisted with the first coming with a man advantage to cut the lead to 7-6.

“I was getting nervous and holding my breath,” said LeSelva. “We had those turnovers. They have speed and scored quickly.”

Over the several minutes, Wakefield had numerous chances to score. But the either the shot were wide of the net or were stopped by Morency. Leary took the last shot in the closing seconds. But the senior’s desperate bid was easily stopped by the Panther net-minder as Wakefield’s season came to an end.

“We missed some shots and our throwing and catching was off,” said Lavalle. “The fundamentals hurt us. It’s a tough one. We couldn’t make the plays when we had to.”

The seven seniors playing in their final game include PJ Iannuzzi, Austin Collard, Henry Miller, Braedan Langlois, Pat Leary, Ty Collins, and Justin Sullivan.