DANVERS — The St. John’s Prep lacrosse team took a nine-goal lead and never looked back Thursday evening, as the No. 1 Eagles rolled to a 15-0 win over No. 32 Belmont in a Division 1 Round of 32 game at Fred Glatz Memorial Field.
“It’s always great when you can start fast like that and then adjust as the game goes on,” said Prep coach John Pynchon. “We moved the ball well and took some good shots early, and that really set the tone for us out there.”
Getting out to that big lead early also helped the Prep in other ways, like being able to get a number of freshmen and sophomore players some serious varsity minutes in a state tournament setting.
“If you look back at last year, guys like Rowan Mondello and Matt Morrow had big tournament performances for us when they came in as reserves, and now both of those guys are starting,” said Pynchon. “These guys (freshmen and sophomores) work their tails off every day and practice with the varsity squad, and they’ve earned their spot out on the field.”
The Eagles saw 12 players find the back of the net, including five freshmen. Charlie Wilmot, Jimmy Ayers and Luke Kelly each scored two goals in the winning effort, while Tommy Sarni and Rowan Mondello each had one goal and one assist. Max Perault, Jackson Quigley, Nick Brandano, Joe Bullard, Josh Haarmann, Jimmy Ellard and Chris Esposito each scored one goal, while Ben Merena notched one assist. Goalies Teddy Cullinane (one save) and Austin Kitces (two saves) combined to earn the shutout in net.
St. John’s Prep was also able to dominate in the faceoff circle, winning 17 of the 18 draws in the game. Esposito and Jack Doherty were both a perfect 8-for-8 in the circle, while Nathan Bernarduci went 1-for-2 on faceoffs.
It was a fast start for the Eagles in this one, as Ayers found the back of the net just 35 seconds into the game and Wilmot added a goal of his own two minutes later. Sarni then turned an interception at midfield into a goal, the Ayers hit Wilmot with a slick pass out front to push the lead to 4-0. From there, Kelly notched two goals over the final five minutes while Mondello, Esposito and Ayers each found the back of the net once — making it a 9-0 game after one quarter.
Things slowed down a bit from there, as the reserve players started to filter in on each side. Still, goals from Ellard, Perault and Haarmann made it a 12-0 lead at halftime.
The rest of the game played out in a similar fashion, with the Prep playing the “run the clock” game while adding three more goals in the process.
St. John’s Prep (18-1) now pushes ahead to the Div. 1 Round of 16, where the Eagles will go up against a familiar foe in No. 17 Catholic Memorial Saturday morning (11).
“It’s actually a pretty good thing with a short turnaround like this that we’ve already played them this year,” said Pynchon. “Catholic Memorial is playing the best lacrosse they’ve played all year right now, and Coach (Brian) Powers was named Coach of the Year in our league because of the great job he’s done building up that program. So for us, it’s about coming in tomorrow, having a great day of practice and getting laser focused on the task at hand — which is getting a win against Catholic Memorial on Saturday.”
