DANVERS — After battling back and forth with Xaverian for the entire first half, the St. John’s Prep lacrosse team netted seven unanswered goals in the second half to help take home a 13-8 win over the Hawks in a Catholic Conference bout at Glatz Field Thursday evening.
Lynnfield native and recent Item Boys Hockey All-Star Tommy Sarni led the way for the Eagles, scoring four goals in the win. Charlie Wilmot added two goals and one assist, while Jake Vana scored two goals and Jimmy Ayers added one goal and one assist. Matt Morrow, Will Sawyer, Jackson Delaney and Lucas Verrier each scored one goal in the win, while Luca Winter notched one assist. Chris Esposito had a big game in the faceoff circle, winning 13 of 24 attempts, while goalie Teddy Cullinane made nine saves to secure the victory in net.
It was a back-and-forth battle from the very beginning, as goals from Sarni and Morrow in the opening minutes of the game put the Eagles ahead 2-0 before Xaverian responded with two tallies of its own to tie it back up. Vana’s first goal put the Prep ahead again, but Cole Jette scored twice for the Hawks to put Xaverian up 4-3 after one quarter.
The second quarter was much of the same, as Sarni and Ayers scored for the Eagles and Jake Gilbert and Kevin Parrish scored for the Hawks to keep it a one-goal game — 6-5 Xaverian — at the halftime break.
Xaverian started the second half with a goal from Ben Ryan to put the Hawks back up by two goals, but Wilmot scored for the Prep on the very next possession to make it 7-6 and the momentum completely turned from there.
The Eagles went on a 7-1 run over the final quarter and a half — including a run of seven unanswered goals — to take home the win. It started with Sarni’s third of the game to tie things up at 7-7 before his fourth of the game made it 8-7 Eagles. Then, three goals in the final 46 seconds of the third quarter — one each from Verrier, Wilmot and Delaney — made it an 11-7 game heading into the final frame.
Vana and Sawyer netted goals in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring for the Prep before Cole Jette’s hat-trick goal stopped the bleeding for the Hawks.
St. John’s Prep (3-0) hosts BC High Tuesday evening (5:30).
