LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield boys lacrosse team put an exclamation mark on its regular season Wednesday afternoon, rolling to a 15-5 win over Bishop Fenwick in a non-conference bout at Pioneer Stadium.
The star of the day for the pioneers was junior Jack Calichman, who had three goals and five assists and broke the school’s single season scoring record in the process. Calichman now has 104 points this year.
“He’s a blue line to blue line player, and he’s the engine that makes our offense go,” said Lynnfield coach Pat Lamusta. “He’s got the talent, he’s got the leadership qualities and he’s just an all-around great player for us. We’re incredibly lucky to have him.”
Drew Damiani had six goals and two assists to propel the Pioneers’ offensive attack, while Will Steadman had two goals and two assists. Mike Murphy scored two goals, Will Norton had one goal and one assist and Janssen Sperling scored one goal. Mark Sweeney notched one assist.
For Fenwick, Kevin Wood led the way with one goal and two assists. Brady McClung, Anthony Sasso, Jake Westin and Nathaniel Ricciuti each scored one goal, while Manny Alvarez-Segee notched two assists.
“Our offense just didn’t come through for us,” said Fenwick coach Dave MacKenzie. “We need to play smarter out there. We have these lapses where we lose focus and it kills us every time. We’ve got to clean that stuff up.”
Lynnfield got the scoring started early, notching a goal from Damiani just 33 seconds into the game. Fenwick responded back with goals from Wood and Westin to take a 2-1 lead, but Lynnfield answered back and went on a four-goal run over the final 3:23 of the first quarter to take a 5-2 lead. The last of those four goals — an unassisted tally from Calichman — gave the junior his 100th point of the season.
The Pioneers really broke things open in the second quarter, as two more goals from Calichman and one goal each from Damiani and Sperling stretched the lead out to 9-2. Only a goal from McClung with 37 seconds left in the half broke the streak, and the score stood at 9-3 Pioneers at the halftime break.
Lynnfield never allowed the Crusaders to get close after that, scoring the first three goals of the third quarter to take a commanding 12-3 lead. Fenwick once again scored at the end of the quarter to stop the streak, but the Pioneers were able to score a few more goals and run out the clock to take home the victory.
Bishop Fenwick wraps up the regular season at 8-10 and hopes to earn a spot in the upcoming Div. 3 state tournament. The Crusaders are currently the No. 28 team in the latest MIAA power rankings, but did not earn an automatic bid because they finished under .500 on the season.
“If we’re going to go anywhere, provided we do make the tournament, we’re going to have to improve the 6-inch space between the years,” said MacKenzie. “If we can keep our focus, we have the talent to compete against all of these other teams. But the question for us is which team is going to show up.”
Lynnfield closes the regular season at 14-4 and awaits its seeding in the upcoming Div. 4 state tournament. The Crusaders are currently the No. 6 team in the latest MIAA power rankings.
“We’ve been trying to hold ourselves to a really high standard no matter what the score is each game,” said Lamusta. “It’s all about keeping our composure, taking it one quarter at a time and continuing to play the way we’ve been playing. There are a lot of great teams in the division IV bracket, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it shakes out. But we’re excited, we’re enthusiastic and we’re confident as we head into the tournament.”
