MALDEN — After not winning a game since the end of the 2019 season, the Malden Catholic boys lacrosse team opened up the 2022 season in style when they pulled away late to earn a 12-5 win over St. Mary’s in a non-conference matchup at Brother Gilbert Stadium Thursday afternoon.
The Lancers — who lost the entire 2020 season to COVID and then went 0-12 in the shortened 2021 season — went on an 8-1 run in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
“Lacrosse is a game of runs, and we really got hot in that fourth quarter to pick up the win,” said Malden Catholic coach Seamus McGuire. “I told the boys, ‘don’t let them get their feet back under them,’ and they really locked it down out there.”
Winthrop native Tyler Boucher led the way for Malden Catholic with a six-goal performance.
“He’s fantastic — he’s a fast kid and he’s able to be super shifty on the field,” said McGuire. “But he also knows how to slow down and pull it out. He was super settled at some points, and he was able to show some real composure out there.”
Anthony Angiuoni scored three goals in the win for the Lancers, while Lynn native Aidan Cole had two goals and one assist. William Fosdick had one goal and four assists, while Sean O’Donoghue notched two assists.
For St. Mary’s, Nahant native Seamus Foley led the offensive attack with three goals and one assist. Peabody native Brady Ayles scored one goal, as did Swampscott native and goalkeeper Daniel Domeniconi — who also had a handful of saves. Ben Fry added one assist for the Spartans.
“I think the difference (Thursday) was faceoffs,” said St. Mary’s coach Wayne Silva. “Their (faceoff) guy (Dominic Smigliani) is getting Division I looks, and I think he won 17 out of the 21 faceoffs. That ended up putting us back on our heels and tiring out our defense, and things fell down from there. But we showed some great signs; we just have to clean up a few areas.”
The two teams battled back and forth through the first nine minutes of Thursday’s game, but Malden Catholic was eventually able to get on the board first when Boucher found the back of the net on a centering pass from O’Donoghue with three minutes to go in the first quarter.
The second quarter started off with Foley picking up a ground ball and rifling one into the net to tie the score at 1-1, but the Lancers answered back 23 seconds later when Angiuoni scored.
The back-and-forth continued for the next two quarters, with the lead changing hands two more times before the two sides went into the final frame deadlocked at 4-4. Ayles, Foley and Domeniconi each scored once for the Spartans in that stretch, while Boucher found the back of the net twice in the same span.
Then came the fourth quarter, where Malden Catholic took control.
The goals came rapid-fire as the Lancers took the lead and never looked back, as Malden Catholic scored five times within the first six minutes of the quarter (two from Cole and one each from Boucher, Angiuoni and Fosdick) to jump ahead 9-4.
St. Mary’s managed to stem the tide momentarily when Foley scored his third of the game with 4:24 to play, but Boucher responded with back-to-back goals one minute later and Angiuoni capped the scoring 30 seconds after that to seal the victory for Malden Catholic.
St. Mary’s (0-1) will play its home opener Monday night (7) against Matignon under the lights at Manning Field.
Malden Catholic (1-0) hosts BC High Tuesday afternoon (4) back at Brother Gilbert Stadium.
