DANVERS — The No. 3 St. John’s Prep lacrosse team exploded onto Glatz Field Sunday afternoon, jumping out to a 10-goal lead in the first half en route to an 18-6 victory over No. 6 Peabody in the Division 1 North quarterfinal. The Eagles had 14 players score at least one point in the win, an indication of the Prep’s depth of talent on the offensive side of the ball.
Jimmy Ayers was the top scorer for St. John’s Prep with two goals and two assists, while Tommy Sarni and Jake Vana each had two goals and one assist. Pat Atkins added two goals, while Harlan Graber had one goal and one assist. Charlie Wilmot, Lucas Verrier, Luke Surette, Andrew Klein, Jimmy Ellard, Keigen Delisle, Noah Brown, Zack Raposa and Michael Kelly each scored one goal. Tyee Ambrosh was the Eagles’ leading assist man with three on the day, while Michael Ayers had two assists and Matt Morrow, Nate Jones and Will Sawyer each had one assist.
The Prep was also strong in the faceoff circle, as the Eagles’ top four draw men — Graham Tyson, Owen Umansky, Chris Esposito and Jack Doherty — only lost three of their 29 total faceoff opportunities.
Three goaltenders also saw time in net for St. John’s Prep, with Teddy Cillinane notching six saves, Kaden Quirk making four saves and Gavin Kornitsky making two saves.
For Peabody, Anthony Bettencourt led the way with two goals. Matthew Bettencourt added one goal in the loss, while Drew Lucas had one assist.
The Eagles got off to a quick start when Jimmy Ayers found the back of the net a little more than a minute into the game, then the Prep got running downhill. St. John’s tallied two more goals — one each from Wilmot and Atkins — before Peabody finally answered with a goal from Anthony Bettencourt to make it 3-1 Prep. But the Eagles wouldn’t let the Tanners gain any momentum, scoring three unanswered goals to take a 6-1 lead into the start of the second quarter.
That’s when the Prep really got things rolling.
Atkins opened the second with a goal to keep up the momentum, then Surette scored two goals in a span of 17 seconds to put the score at 9-1 Eagles. After two more goals to close the half, the Prep took an 11-1 lead into the break.
After St. John’s opened the second half with a goal from Vana, Peabody went on a small run with back-to-back goals from Anthony and Matthew Bettencourt to get some momentum rolling. But the Tanners could never quite get close enough to put pressure on the Eagles, and St. John’s was able to close the game with a handful of goals to run away with the victory.
Peabody finishes its season at 12-4.
St. John’s Prep (14-1) now moves on to the Division 1 North semifinal round, where the Eagles will face either No. 2 Medford or No. 7 North Andover on Wednesday (TBD).
