James: Melrose will be “best team in the state next year”
Published June 14, 2019
By BEN PAINCHAUD
WINCHESTER—Matt Dussault scored four goals, Matt Rocha did his part in net, and Brendan Maher was his usual rock-solid self, but the Melrose High boy’s lacrosse team ended its 2019 campaign with a 15-8 loss to Winchester in the second round of the DII North playoffs this past Monday, June 10 on the road in Winchester.
The Red Raiders quadrupled their scoring output in the second half, but the 9-2 hole they faced at halftime proved too steep to overcome.
After the loss, Melrose head coach Matt James was upbeat about the team’s future, even saying, “I think that this is gonna be the best team in the state next year. We’re graduating one starter and a few contributors, but we’re bringing back an awful lot of real good kids, real lot of hard workers. We’re gonna get bigger and stronger.”
With a core of Dussault, Maher, Chris Cusolito, Brendan Fennell, Andrew Calvert and others set to return, James has good reason to believe so. Maher, a UMass Amherst commit, is already one of the stoutest defenders in the state; Dussault rips the ball with the best of them; Cusolito is an athletic dodger and all-around player; Fennell piles up points with his craftiness; and Calvert is a true two-way player with excellent speed.
WATCH OUT for Melrose boy’s lacrosse next season. A large amount of players will return. (courtesy photo)
Winchester prolonged their time from coming just yet, however, by taking the Red Raiders by storm in the first half. On defense, it seemed the Sachems’ long-poles stifled almost every Melrose attempt to drive to the cage, causing numerous turnovers with their stinginess and disrupting at least three Melrose clear attempts.
On the other end, Winchester’s attackmen proved elusive and quick for Melrose’s defensemen, slipping around or even sometimes through the Red Raiders for scores and easy set-ups. Winchester was also effective in transition, creating easy fast break shots with its urgency at pushing the ball upfield quickly. Yet, the 9-2 halftime score could have been even more lopsided had Rocha not stuffed as many quality shots as he did.
“They used their experience to kind of pick on our young guys,” said James. “I think that we, if we slid a half a step off, they would’ve run through that stick. Just based on how big they are, how strong they are, how fast they are—I think we made 13 mistakes on defense today, and they scored 13 times on it.”
The only two scores by Melrose in the first half both came from Dussault, whom James called a “big-game player.” Late in the first quarter, with Melrose desperate to get on the board, Dussault tried to barrel his way left, then stopped, spun, and fired a shot into the back of the cage to make it 4-1 Winchester. Then, late in the second quarter, Dussault received a pass and cranked a shot that sizzled past Winchester’s goalie and pocketed the upper right corner of the net.
When Melrose did come up with stops on defense, it seemed Winchester beat them to most of the 50/50 balls. “100 percent they got more of the 50/50 balls,” said James. “I’m not exactly sure why. Typically, that’s kind of what we’re built on is that ground ball piece and that controlling the tempo piece…I think that’s a credit to—maybe they were more desperate, with the number of senior and the number of upperclassmen that they have.”
In the second half, James believed the offense played “more as a unit.” He felt that his team moved the ball better and trusted each other more in the last two quarters. Dussault, Calvert, and Cusolito all scored twice in the second half. James said that, had Melrose been able to clear the ball at one critical point halfway through the fourth, they could have really cut it close.
The Red Raiders never came within six goals of the Sachems in the second half. When Melrose needed to dominate the face-off circle the most in the fourth quarter in order to limit Winchester’s possession time, the Sachems won time and time again with a quick initial draw. Melrose ended its year with an overall record of 13-6.
Ben Painchaud can be reached at bpainchaud@umass.edu or on Twitter @Ben_Painchaud.
