It’s Marblehead against Beverly…again…for a North title

Since the brackets for the Division 2 North boys? lacrosse tournament came out, it seemed like Beverly and Marblehead were destined to collide for a second straight season in the finals.
On Tuesday, the Panthers and Magicians made that a reality by winning in drastically different manners in the semifinals.
No. 3 Marblehead was led by its defense to a 13-6 win over No. 2 Wakefield. No. 1 Beverly, meanwhile, was pushed to the final seconds by fourth-seeded Malden Catholic as Jordan Rawding scored with 3.3 seconds left for a 9-8 Panthers? victory.
The Northeastern Conference rivals will meet Friday in the division final. It will be their third meeting this season and sixth over the last two years.
?The guys are really excited,” Marblehead coach John Wilkens said. “We?re going against a very good team. It?s going to come down to who wants it more.”
The Magicians (15-6) had it going on both ends of the field as Nathan Maselek made 22 saves to lead the defense. Offensively, it was a balanced attack, led by two goals and four assists from Brooks Tyrrell.
Max Orrock added a hat trick while Andy Clough and Andrew McGurrin had two goals and two assists each. Sam Paquette netted a goal and two assists with Hillman Hollister, Manning Sears and P.J. Roy also scoring as Marblehead broke open a 3-2 game at halftime.
?We?re getting a lot of guys who are stepping up and playing well,” Wilkens said.
Beverly (16-6) jumped out to a 4-1 lead over the Lancers late in the first half. But MC (12-8) fought back to close the margin to 4-3 by halftime and then scored back-to-back goals early in the third quarter to lead for the first time at 5-4.
Ian Butler answered for the Panthers with consecutive tallies that gave Beverly back the lead. The Lancers? Matt Ciulla scored just before the third quarter expired to tie the game, 6-6.
Ciulla scored again early in the fourth quarter to give MC the lead but Sam Traicoff answered right back for Beverly. The game remained tied until Sam Abate?s goal in transition with 3:33 to go that made it 8-7 Panthers.
The Lancers weren?t through battling, however, as Ciulla scored his fourth goal of the game to again tie the score, with just over two minutes left in regulation. The teams traded possessions until Beverly got the ball back with 47 seconds left and called timeout.
After nearly losing the ball once and having two shots stopped, the Panthers got a final chance with 10 seconds left off a stoppage. Rawding cut from the right sideline into the middle and ripped a shot into the top right corner of the goal to spark a wild celebration on the Panthers? sideline.?Jordy made a great play to get past his defender top side and get off a really good shot,” Beverly coach John Pynchon said.