LYNN — The Classical golf team continued its winning ways Monday afternoon, fighting through a rain-soaked round to notch a win over cross-town rival English, 46-26, at Gannon Golf Club.
“It’s certainly always good to get a win against a rival, especially on a day in less than ideal conditions,” said Classical coach Jack Morrison. “All our guys played well out there today.”
The Rams swept their matches Monday, led by their top three golfers in Tim Nerich, Brendan Lannon and Brett Bucklin. While Bucklin won his match handily at 7-2, Nerich and Lannon had to battle a little harder to get their wins. Lannon, who shot a 39 on the day, went head-to-head with English’s Paul Papageorgiou and came out on top 5-4, while Nerich beat English’s Nathan Whitcomb 6-3.
“Those three have been leading the way all year so far, and they’ve done a great job as leaders,” said Morrison. “They each win a majority of their matches and listen to everything that’s asked of them. With that said, there are things we can do better, but they’ve done a great job this year.”
“Classical has a very good team, and it’s always a test when we go up against them,” said English coach Jim Tidmarsh. “We’re trying to build our program up to get to the level they’re at now, so it’s always good to go up against them to get a benchmark for where we want to be.”
Another bright spot for Classical in the match was the play of two seniors who got their first varsity starts, Jack Calnan and Brian Clougherty. Despite not having much playing experience with the varsity squad, Calnan won his match 6-3 and Clougherty won his match 5-4.
“Those guys are both good athletes, and they know how to win,” Morrison said of Clougherty and Calnan, who both play on the Lynn Jets hockey team. “They’ve been with the program for a long time, and I knew they could get the job done when we called on them.”
Rounding out the winners for Classical were Andrew Patrie, Kyle McCarthy and Brad Cerrone.
Now at 8-2 on the season, Classical’s inching closer to qualifying for the Division 2 state tournament. Morrison knows that means an even more acute sense of focus and preparation for his team in the coming weeks.
“We’ve done very well this year, but make no mistake we still have a big mountain to climb,” Morrison said. “This is obviously a very hard game, and we need to remain focused and keep our attention to detail. Not only that, we’ll switch to medal play once the tournament rolls around, which is a change from our normal match-play format. So we have to work on all of those things in the lead-up to the tournament.”
English, on the other hand, remains winless on the year and is continuing to work at ways to improve and get over the hump.
“We’ve had some trouble fielding a full team at times this year due to injuries and other things, so we’ve been at a disadvantage in that aspect,” Tidmarsh said. “But we have some good players, and once we can get everyone out there at the same time we should have an opportunity to compete with some of these teams.”
Classical hosts Malden Thursday (3:45) at Gannon. English will play on the road against Everett Thursday (3:45) at Mount Hood Golf Course.
