Published in the May 10, 2021 edition.
By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — It wasn’t the only perfectly executed play of the morning, but it certainly was the most exciting.
Playing in their second game in three days against Watertown, Wakefield’s trio of talented senior attackers put on a show with a triple behind the back goal to give their team a 10-1 lead in their home opener that they would end up winning 17-2.
Junior captain Jake Dubiel started it up by winning a faceoff and finding senior Malcolm Burns on the left side, his two steps and sharp behind the back pass to fellow senior Oliver Miller drew a couple of “oh’s” from the crowd which only crescendoed with Miller’s lightning-quick behind the back over his left shoulder and across the crease to senior captain Max Dimella who brought the Wakefield fans to their feet with one final behind the back, top shelf, snapping the net and setting off a proper celebration.
A video of the play is currently circulating online; Dimella’s initial post on Twitter, appropriately titled “BTB x3,” is up to 12 retweets and 34 likes and was picked up by BostonLax.net who has it in the lead for the highlight of the week.
From a larger perspective, it showcased the talent of Burns, Miller and Dimella with a nod to Dubiel in the midfield and will likely continue to build the confidence of a team who proved they are going to score plenty of goals this season with a combined 35 in their first two (they beat the Raiders 18-2 in the opener). The defense has been just as impressive, led by seniors Michael and Mattew Petito, senior Sabatino Rossetti and junior Jon Guida along with sophomore goalies Andrew Almquist and Kaiden Johnson who split time on Saturday.
“We have a balanced team led by nine seniors, combined with five juniors and seven sophomores” said head coach Tim Johnson. “Our JV team is also talented across the board. I haven’t seen this much talent top to bottom in our program – everyone is a good player with a high lacrosse I.Q.”
Johnson spent 11 years as Wakefield’s JV coach before stepping in as varsity head coach midway through last season (2019) when Andrew Lavalle stepped down. The Warriors finished the season strong and went on to beat Danvers in the first round of the Div. 2 North tournament before falling to eventual state champion Winchester in the quarterfinals.
Wakefield was robbed of what was sure to be a strong season with a talented team in 2020 but certainly feel like they have the depth and leadership to make this year a memorable one, especially with sectional and state tournaments returning to high school sports for the first time since spring 2019.
“For these seniors, it was definitely a hard year to lose,” said Johnson. “I just tell them ‘this is your chance to let everyone know Wakefield lacrosse is back.’ Everyone is excited and buying in.”
Dimella led the way on Saturday with five goals and two assists while Miller added a goal and five assists. Burns and Michael Petito both had two goals and an assist, Dubiel scored twice, senior Maxx Brennan had two assists, senior Brogan Chambers had a goal and an assist, sophomore Bobby DeFeo had two goals and an assist and junior Danny Mailhoit added a tally.
Dimella (four goals, two assists) and Miller (two goals, four assists) also led the scoring in game one, followed by Burns (three goals, one assist), Dubiel (three goals) and Matt Petito (one goal, two assists).
The Warriors will look to continue their strong start with two games against Wilmington this week, the first of which will be home at Landrigan Field on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The Wildcats are 0-2 after dropping their first two against a strong Burlington team. Wakefield had eight games left to complete a 10-game regular season.
“Every team ebbs and flows but we’re playing really well right now and they’re excited for the rest of the season,” said Johnson.