The No. 3 St. John’s Prep lacrosse team left no doubts about who the top team in Division 1 North is, knocking off No. 5 Lincoln-Sudbury 12-5 Saturday afternoon at Glatz Field to capture the Division 1 North title.
The Eagles got the job done on both sides of the field, scoring early and often on offense and shutting the door on defense.
Jimmy Ayers led the scoring attack for the Prep with four goals, while Tommy Sarni was close behind with three goals and one assist. Luke Surette added two goals and one assist, while Pat Atkins had one goal and one assist. Charlie Wilmot and Michael Kelly each scored one goal, while Michael Ayers had two assists and Lucas Verrier had one assist.
On the defensive side, the Eagles excelled behind the play of Connor Kelly, Tim Haarmann and goalie Kaden Quirk — who finished the day with 11 saves.
As has been the case all season, the Prep also dominated in the faceoff circle, as Graham Tyson was 8-for-10 facing off and Owen Umansky was 8-for-12.
The Eagles got the scoring started right away, getting goals from Atkins and Surette in the opening minutes of the game. Lincoln-Sudbury tried to get back some momentum after that, sending a hard shot that ricocheted off the Prep post. The ball ended up bouncing so far away that it set up an odd-man rush for the Eagles on the other end, and they cashed in on the 3-on-2 chance with Surette’s second of the game to put the score at 3-0. After Jimmy Ayers added his first of the game with 2:11 to play in the first, St. John’s Prep took a 4-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Eagles kept the momentum going at the start of the second, as Atkins sent a nifty pass over to Jimmy Ayers for a goal to make it 5-0.
But then Lincoln-Sudbury got a couple back, getting back-to-back goals from Dave Herlihy and Hayden Donley to get back in the game. But Sarni stopped any plans for a big rally, scoring an unassisted goal just a little more than three minutes to go in the half to help the Eagles take a 6-2 lead into the break.
Sarni remained hot coming out of the locker room, scoring 15 seconds into the third quarter to make it a five-goal lead once again.
After Herlihy got one back for Lincoln-Sudbury to make it 7-3, the Eagles netted three unanswered goals — two from Jimmy Ayers and one from Sarni — to take their biggest lead of the game heading into the final quarter.
Lincoln-Sudbury never got within six goals the rest of the way, as Kelly and Wilmot added insurance goals in the fourth quarter to seal the victory and punch the Eagles’ ticket to the state championship game.
St. John’s Prep (16-1) now moves on to the EMass Division 1 State Final, where the Eagles will host Division 1 South champion Franklin/BC High on Wednesday at a time and place to be determined.
