LYNN — It isn’t often that an all-star game becomes a back and forth battle from the opening whistle to the final seconds. Wednesday night’s Seventh Agganis Boys Lacrosse All-Star Game, however, was certainly one of those.
Andover’s Bret Miller scored the eventual game-winner with 2:25 remaining to lead the North all-stars to a 10-9 win over the South at Manning Field. Miller’s goal broke a 9-9 tie and the North defense did just enough to hold the South offense in the closing minutes.
“It was back and forth,” South coach Todd Pierce, who stepped down from his coaching duties at Swampscott last week, said. “The kids had a great time. They competed. They were out there working hard and it was fun.”
“It was a great game,” North coach Steve Driscoll, of Fenwick, said. “Both teams definitely competed. I think it kind of goes to show this game means a lot to the seniors. Being selected is meaningful and that’s a good thing for this game, and for the Agganis foundation.”
Ipswich attacker Patrick Gillis scored three goals, all in the first half, to pace the North’s offense. Gillis was named the North team’s MVP.
“Patrick has done a lot of winning during his four years at Ipswich,” Driscoll said. “It’s a nice way to kind of put that feather in his cap and end his high school career. It’s a cool way for him to go out and it’s a cool way for all the seniors to go out. I know our guys from Fenwick had a blast.”
Billerica attacker Tyler Morris scored two goals to lead the South. Morris was named the South team’s MVP.
The South all-stars took a 1-0 lead after Craig Claflin (Catholic Memorial) scored the game’s first goal two and a half minutes into the tilt. Just over a minute later, Gillis tied the game at 1-1. Matthew Rawding (Beverly) reclaimed the lead for the South with 24:57 left in the first half, but North’s Daniel O’Connell (Methuen) knotted things up again at 2-2.
It remained a cat and mouse game through the end of the first half. Gillis added two more goals, while Kevin Murphy (North Reading) and Miller each tallied one. South’s Morris, Connor Bond (Malden Catholic), Alex Alessi (Essex Tech) and Deven Patel (Catholic Memorial) each scored once. At halftime, both sides were even in a 6-6 tie.
“They wanted to play and score some goals in the beginning,” Driscoll said. “Then they started to realize that it was a pretty even game. It was cool.”
A two-goal rally with tallies from the Central Catholic duo of Liam Burke and Zachary DeBay gave the North an 8-6 lead to start the second half. Refusing to quit, the South tied the game with goals from Morris and Christian Billingsley (Saugus).
Kevin Swenson (Ipswich) put the North ahead 9-8 with 5:40 to play, but the South, once again, evened the score on Nick Sanderson’s (Saugus) goal with 3:12 remaining. That set the stage for Miller, who’ll attend Colby College in the fall, to break the 9-9 tie with the eventual game-winner at the 2:25 mark.
Both coaches agreed that Wednesday’s game served as a strong showcase for the improvement and growth of lacrosse across the North Shore.
“It’s really nice. We had kids from all over the place which is nice to see,” Pierce said. “Newer programs like Salem Academy had one kid here (Thomas Philbin). That just shows the growth of lacrosse in the North Shore area. I thought the goalie from Malden Catholic (Eric Almquist) played outstanding in the second half. It was fun.”
“Lacrosse is such a cool sport that it’s able to take everything you learned in hockey, football and baseball and put it to use on the lacrosse field,” Driscoll said. “It really is a sport for athletes. To be able to see the amount of kids that were playing in it and the amount of people that were here, it’s really showing how important lacrosse has been on the North Shore over the years.”
