PEABODY — The Bishop Fenwick boys lacrosse team improved to 7-2 with a 13-10 win over visiting Archbishop Williams on a picture-perfect Monday afternoon at home.
The Crusaders never trailed in this one, jumping out to a 4-0 lead with seven minutes left in the first quarter, but the pesky Bishops refused to go away, taking advantage of several ill-timed Crusader turnovers to battle back twice to tie the game. In the end, the Crusaders stepped up on both sides of the ball in a big way late to seal the victory.
Senior captain Luke Connolly dominated the face-off circle. Freshman goalie Warren Dubois (8 saves) was also a huge factor, keeping the Bishops from stealing the momentum whenever they threatened to take a lead.
“I’ve said this from the get-go that Luke is one of the best, if not the best, on the North Shore,” Bishop Fenwick coach Dave MacKenzie said. “I’d say we had possession 90% of the time today because of Luke.”
“Warren is a freshman who is playing his first year as a goalie. He’s just very athletic right out of the gate which bodes well for us. He’s a hockey goalie so he understands how to be athletic and we get to reap the reward,” MacKenzie said. “He definitely made some saves that were timely in situations where if Archie scores, you just don’t know what happens. It’s nice to be able to have an ace in the hole in goal and on face-offs.”
Sophomore midfielder CJ Masone led the offense with three goals and two assists. Senior captain and middie Joey Marshall also scored three goals and notched one assist. Senior captain and attackman Anthony Sasso (2 goals, 1 assist), junior attackman Nathaniel Ricciuti (2 goals, 1 assist), sophomore attackman Dylan Patturelli (2 goals), and junior middie Aidan Byrne (1 goal, 1 assist) also had multiple-point games.
The game was still up for grabs at the start of the fourth quarter with Fenwick clinging to a slim 10-9 lead. That’s when Byrne gave the Crusaders some breathing room. Thirty seconds into the quarter, he rifled a bullet from point-blank range to make it 11-9. Dubois then made a big save while the Crusaders were a man down to keep Williams from cutting into the lead. Byrne was right back at it with a little less than five minutes to go, spinning in from the right side of the net to make it 12-9. Two minutes later, Patturrelli finished a feed from Ricciuti to put the game out of reach at 13-9 with three minutes to go.
The Bishops closed the gap to 13-10 with a minute to go, but Fenwick senior captain defender Kieran Corcoran made sure it stayed that way. He broke up a quality scoring chance with about 40 seconds to go, then cleared the ball downfield.
“That early goal (Byrne’s) was definitely something that we needed and today it was good that we had guys who stepped up and have done that all season,” MacKenzie said. “Kieran does all the grunt work. He doesn’t get many, if any, points, but when we need to shut down the other team’s top guy, Kieran is the guy who has to do it. He does it every single time. I know without doubt when I say this is what you need to do, Kieran will do it.”
MacKenzie liked what he saw from senior defenseman Anthony Nichols, who won the groundball battle for much of the game.
“My only problem with him is he waited until his senior year to play lacrosse,” MacKenzie said. “He ran spring track so we’ve only had him for this year. He is a blessing to coach, an awesome guy to coach, and a fantastic player. We’ve had too little time with him.”
MacKenzie said Fenwick’s turnovers were uncharacteristic for the team.
“Those were mental mistakes and I really don’t know the answer to what was going on with the turnovers,” MacKenzie said. “Eight times out of 10 we don’t make those mistakes. Today was one of those two times that we did, but the boys were able to battle through and they didn’t end up hurting us.”
Fenwick’s next game is Wednesday at Lynnfield at 4 p.m.
“That will be a big game,” MacKenzie said. “It’s a very strong program. We’ve played them the last few years and they have a great coach in Pat (Lamusta) so we are looking forward to it.”
