Spartan lacrosse doubles up Nashoba

LYNN – After shrugging off a sluggish start, the St. Mary?s boys lacrosse team came out firing in the second quarter en route to a 12-6 victory over Nashoba Tech on Tuesday afternoon at Manning Field.Winners of their last two games, the Spartans now sit at 3-6 and according to coach Shawn Anderson, may be hitting their stride at a very opportune time.?Our record might not indicate it, but we have been playing some great lacrosse lately,” explained the third-year coach. “I think we were in sleep mode at the start, but we woke up and turned in a solid team effort. Hopefully we are peaking at the right time.”The hosts fell behind 2-0 before the game was three minutes old, but grabbed the next two tallies in the opening period before overwhelming the Vikings for five goals in the second to head into halftime up 7-3.After Jake Twombley and Ben Coppinger beat St. Mary?s goalie Brendan Donahue with consecutive shots just 2:20 apart, the latter at the 9:19 mark, the hosts began to find an offensive rhythm.Steve Cronin cut the lead in half on a nice finish from the left side at the 5:51 mark before Austin Frankel (3 goals) notched the equalizer 2:34 later after converting on a feed from behind the net.After outshooting Nashoba 5-2 in the first 12 minutes, the Spartans scored on five of their 10 shots in the following frame while Donahue, making his first career start, stopped five of the visitors? six bids.?We came into the season without a clear-cut goalie, but Brendan came to me and said he was willing to give it a shot,” said Anderson. “He stepped in and did a good job today. He?s certainly a work in progress but he?s a character guy and I expect him to get better.”The freshman netminder finished with six saves in the game.Richard Cadigan (3 goals) and Jimmy Torosian (4 goals) tallied nine seconds apart in the opening minute to double the St. Mary?s lead before the latter rang iron from in tight shortly after. The Vikings got one back with 7:48 to play on Coppinger?s second goal.Nashoba goalie Jordan Gingras (12 saves) kept things close with four consecutive stops spanning a 58-second flurry until Torosian scored from in close with the man-advantage. Frankel would finish off a feed from Nick Amenta at the 4:42 mark before Rick Calvani tallied at 1:11 with John Young off for slashing.Three consecutive strikes by the home team opened up a seven-goal lead by the 4:26 mark of the third quarter.Frankel ripped one home to the short side at 9:57 after receiving a pass from Cronin, stationed behind the net, before Cadigan scored shorthanded 2:46 later and again on a shot while falling at the 4:26 mark.Ben Hoenshell and Twombley combined to cut the deficit to five with 78 seconds remaining in the period.The teams would exchange tallies late in the final quarter, the Spartans? coming from Torosian at 2:51 before Hoenshell got it back 1:33 later.