LYNNFIELD — The calendar might say it’s mid-April, Thursday afternoon’s battle between the Lynnfield and Wakefield boys lacrosse teams felt more like a tournament game in late May.
After battling back and forth through four full quarters and an overtime., Wakefield’s Jake Dubiel scored with three minutes to go in double overtime to give Wakefield the 7-6 victory at Pioneer Stadium.
“It’s always tough to lose, but in a game like that that was so well played, you have to take a lot of positives away,” said Lynnfield coach Pat Lamusta. “It was great to have Wakefield come in and play a tough non-league game early in the season like this. It really felt like a tournament game out there.”
Lamusta was quick to praise his defense for their stellar effort all game long, noting that the unit has really started to gel over the past couple weeks. He pointed to the efforts of players like goalie Ben Pimentel (14 saves), Steven Dreher, James Sharkey, AJ Chiaradonna, Rupert Thomas and Jack Phelps as being particularly noteworthy.
“All I can say is defense, defense, defense,” said Lamusta. “We had some matchups in mind and our guys stayed really committed to those matchups. Our communication was great out there, and those defensive stands were really what kept us in the game.”
On the offensive side of things, Jack Calichman had two goals and three assists to pace the offense, while Will Norton led the team with three goals. Will Steadman also added one goal and two assists in the loss, while Drew Damiani had one assist.
“We had some really good offensive sets, and a couple of our goals came on some really good feeds,” said Lamusta.
The two teams battled back and forth through the entire first half, but it was Lynnfield who had the upper hand going into the break after Calichman and Norton each scored twice and Steadman added the fifth goal to make it a 5-3 game at halftime.
Wakefield got some momentum of its own going at the end of the third quarter after a goal and a two-man advantage, but Lynnfield was able to hold strong on defense and keep the score tied going into the first overtime.
Lynnfield put together a big defensive stand in the first overtime before recovering the ball and making a run of its own. Unfortunately, Steadman’s last-second shot hit the post and sent the game off to a second overtime.
It was there that Wakefield finally got the job done, as Jake Dubiel ripped a missle of a shot into the back of the net with 3:02 remaining in the second overtime to give the Warriors the victory.
Lynnfield (3-2) now has nearly a week off before hosting Pentucket Wednesday (6) back at Pioneer Stadium.
“The biggest thing about having those extra few days is that you get to get back in the film room,” said Lamusta. “You can really drill down and work on the mistakes you made, and you don’t get many of those chances during the lacrosse season. We’ve got to take advantage when we can.”
