CHRISTIAN DIFLORIO battles for a groundball against a Melrose attacker during a physical matchup between the two rivals at Landrigan Field yesterday. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)
By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — A strong start for the Wakefield High boys’ lacrosse team was washed away by their rivals at Landrigan Field yesterday.
Leading Melrose 5-3 with 8 minutes to go in the first half, the Warriors held all the momentum. When Melrose scored with 5:35 left, they didn’t just cut their deficit to one goal; they started an 8-0 run that would carry over all the way to the end of the game, leaving town with an impressive 11-5 victory.
It was actually Wakefield who had the first response of the game after Melrose jumped out to an early, 2-0 lead.
Freshman Nick Metsis scored his first of 2 goals on a bouncer to get the Warriors on the board.
About three minutes later, sophomore Seamus Cable evened it up on a low finish, getting the Wakefield bench into the game as the two rivals became officially tangled in a heavyweight bout.
Sophomore Brady Zdanowicz won the ensuing faceoff and sophomore Brady Walsh capitalized on the momentum, dodging from the sideline all the way to the front of the cage before snapping another one home to take the lead.
Freshman Jaden Fullerton (12 saves) later made one of his multiple acrobatic stops to hold the lead but Melrose would soon tie it back up on a rebound with 4 minutes left of a wildly entertaining opening quarter.
Metsis again gave the home crowd a reason to cheer when he reclaimed the lead for Wakefield on a dodge and top-shelf rip, forcing a Melrose timeout. The Warrior defense, including juniors Ryan Metsis and Robbie Kimball along with sophomores JP Casey, Joe Skowron, Christian DiFlorio and Cam Sartori, stepped up to keep the advantage and Fullerton squared up one final look as the first quarter ended 4-3 Wakefield.
The Warriors pushed it to 5-3 when Sartori put himself in great position to scoop up a rebound and finish about four minutes into the second. Skowron followed with a gutsy shot block, Fullerton added a wild save on a low bid and Cable connected on a huge hit in the wing area as the Warriors were officially buzzing.
To Melrose’s credit, these events only fueled them to get back into the game immediately. They scored 3 goals in the final 5 minutes and dominated the faceoff X to regain all the momentum and take a 6-5 lead into halftime. Senior Max Kleinbub scored 2 of his game-high 5 goals during this stretch, settling his team and making it clear that he would be a handful for Wakefield’s defense all day.
The second half was all Melrose.
The visitors controlled possession and outscored the Warriors 3-0 in the 3rd and 2-0 in the 4th as they cruised to victory.
Wakefield fell to 5-2 with the loss while Melrose improved to 3-7, a deceiving record as they came into Landrigan on a six-game losing streak, four of which came against strong Div. 1 non-league opponents, North Andover, BC High, Needham and Exeter.
The Warriors will need to put this one behind them and get ready for another Middlesex League Freedom Division matchup against Stoneham (0-6) tomorrow, 4:30 p.m. back at Landrigan.
