After suffering a disappointing loss on Tuesday, April 26 to the Newton North Tigers, the Boys Lacrosse team, ranked the #4 team in Division 2, had to bounce back quickly as they had a Thursday night showdown against the #1 ranked team in Massachusetts – the Wellesley Raiders. Coach Jason Andalo retooled the whole offensive scheme because it was clear in the 5-2 loss to Newton North that the offense could not produce. A big question mark for the Rebels offense going into the game was whether or not senior Captain, and leading scorer, Kyle Guilbert would be able to play because he had missed the Newton North game due to a hip injury. The showdown between the Rebels and Raiders on April 28 was sure to be a battle of the powerhouses of the Bay State League.
Wellesley came out strong and won the initial faceoff and within two minutes Wellesley senior Captain Sam Lawrence fired a shot that went five-hole past junior goalie James O’Neill. The Raider lead was extended when senior Captain Charlie Jennings, who is committed to play lacrosse at DIII powerhouse St. Lawrence University, ripped a shot from 10 yards out on a man-up situation. Walpole responded to the early Raider offense and put in a few of their own to make the score at halftime 4-3 with the Rebels on top.
Similar to the beginning of the game, the third quarter began with a pair of Wellesley goals to give them the lead with a score of 5-4. The rest of the game would be a back-and-forth battle between two, seemingly-even matched teams. Andalo decided midway through the third quarter to pull out O’Neill and instead give the nod to freshman Andrew Blood. O’Neill played a solid game and Blood came in and only let up one goal – as well as made several impressive saves. Capitalizing on some of Walpole’s mistakes – particularly in transition – Wellesley was able to hold on and win 8-6.
A big part of Wellesley’s success this year can be attributed to junior goalie, and Captain, Connor Darcey. Darcey is arguably the best goalie in the state and has already committed to play college lacrosse at DI Penn State. In this game, Darcey made some saves on point-blank shots that a majority of high school goalies would easily have missed. The Wellesley clearing game was another one of their strengths as Darcey and his defense quickly moved the ball to create offense.
Walpole showed many promising signs in this close loss. For one, this was the closest game of the year for Wellesley which is something that the Rebels can take out of this disappointing week. Although this was the first back-to-back loss for the Boys Lacrosse team since 2004, the team was not too frustrated with their recent struggles. “We didn’t finish down the stretch,” said senior Captain Chris Norberg, “we were very close to being 8-0”. The Rebels offense was revamped before this game and Andalo’s extra work at practice paid its dividends. Junior attackman Bryan Rockwood started for his second game of his year because of Guilbert’s injury and played exceptional; senior Donny Delpha started the game at attack as well. With a new-look offense the 6-2 Rebels look to capture another Bay State League win on May 3 when they face Brookline, another Bay State team that is having a successful year.
