ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. John’s Prep’s Zache Harde’s late goal brought the Eagles closer … but not close enough.
By KATIE MORRISON
LEXINGTON — In a game of runs Saturday in Lexington, the St. John’s Prep lacrosse team had the first and the last. But they didn’t have the longest.
Walpole scored six straight times over the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters to build a lead the Eagles couldn’t overcome, as the Eagles fell, 12-10, in the championship game of the Creators Crosse tournament at Lincoln Park.
The Eagles had won a couple of tight games, including an 8-7 overtime victory over new coach John Pynchon’s former team, Beverly, to reach the tournament finale. But Pynchon said his team just made too many mistakes against a very good team in Walpole.
“Lot of mistakes. That’s the theme, to learn from them and keep our composure, and just get better,” Pynchon said. “(Walpole is) really well-coached and well-disciplined, and they’re 7-0 for a reason. We made more mistakes than they did, and you can’t make mistakes like that against great teams.”
The Eagles got out to a fast start, with Jack Rickards scoring twice in the opening five minutes. Walpole cut the lead in half with a goal from Ryan Morris, but Rickards completed the hat trick a minute later. St. John’s Prep held onto a 3-2 lead after a quarter.
Early in the second, St. John’s PJ Lombara intercepted a pass right in front of Walpole’s net and snuck a shot past goalie Jackson Kelley. The Rebels fired right back, as St. John’s goalie Mitchell Carpenter deflected a shot, but Connor Foley was right there to snag the rebound and put it back.
Lombara added the Prep’s lead at 5-3, but the Rebels got the goal back soon after with a man advantage. The Rebels went on to score the final two goals of the quarter to take a 6-5 lead into halftime. The Prep were up a man with the ball and 25 seconds left to play in the half, but the stifling Walpole defense didn’t allow the Eagles to get off a shot.
The Eagles again got off to a fast start as the second half opened. Coming out of a Prep timeout, Patrick Keefe knotted the score at 6-6. A minute later, Tim Tyrrell gave the Eagles back the lead with a laser to Kelley’s left. The Eagles then won the faceoff and Lombara extended the lead to 8-6 almost immediately.
But as quickly as St. John’s had gained the momentum, it slipped away. Walpole’s Owen Hunter scored 30 seconds after the Prep had taken a two-goal lead to cut it back to one, and another 30 seconds after that, Jack Hurley erased the lead.
The Rebels scored four more times to take a 12-8 lead halfway through the fourth quarter. Keefe scored his second for the Prep and Zach Harde made it a two-goal game at 12-10, but it was too little, too late as the Rebels ran out the clock.
“We had a lot of guys contribute, and we’re pretty balanced in the offense, we’re pleased with the guys we have, we just have to execute, which we did not do in the second half,” Pynchon said. “They’re learning and getting better, but they have to realize how much better we can be if we start executing these things.”
St. John’s (3-4) will take on Catholic Memorial on the road Friday.
