DANVERS — The steady rain didn’t do anything to slow down the vaunted St. John’s Prep lacrosse team’s offensive attack Monday afternoon, as the Eagles started fast and never looked back en route to a 14-4 win over BC High to capture the inaugural Catholic Conference Championship at Cronin Memorial Stadium.
The win was one of sweet revenge for the Prep, which lost its only game of the season to BC High in overtime two weeks ago.
The offensive attack was led by Tommy Sarni, who scored four goals on the day. Luke Surette and Charlie Wilmot each added three goals in the win, while Jimmy Ayers had one goal and three assists. Tyee Ambrosh had a goal and two assists, while Michael Kelly added a goal and an assist. Charlie Danis scored a goal, while Pat Atkins added two assists.
The Eagles were also led by a strong team defensive effort behind the play of Conor Kelly, Drew Feitze, Emmett Schillinger and Michael Ayers. Goalies Kaden Quirk (six saves) and Mitchell Hodgson (one save) combined to earn the win in net.
St. John’s also got great play in the faceoff circle, with Graham Tyson going 7-for-11 and Owen Umansky going 5-for-8 on the day.
The Eagles got off to a blazing start, scoring seven goals in the opening 15 minutes of the game — the same amount of goals the Prep scored in the entire game in its loss two weeks earlier. Kelly got things going with a goal, then Danis and Surette each found the back of the net to make it 3-0 in the opening minutes. After Wilmot and Ayers each scored within 30 seconds of each other, the Eagles took a 5-0 lead into the first break.
Ambrosh and Surette each added a goal in the early part of the second quarter, then Wilmot scored his second goal of the game on the man advantage to go up 8-0. BC High finally got one back with 1:20 to play in the half, and the Eagles held a dominant 8-1 lead at halftime.
Sarni came out and scored the first two goals of the third quarter to make it 10-1 Prep, and the game was never close the rest of the way. Sarni scored two more goals over the course of the rest of the game, while Wilmot and Surette each added a goal to round out the scoring for the Eagles.
St. John’s Prep wraps up the regular season at 13-1 and now awaits its seeding in the upcoming Division 1 state tournament.
