PEABODY — The Marblehead boys lacrosse team had no trouble finding its groove against host Peabody Thursday, cruising to a 13-2 win to improve to 9-3 and keep its hopes for a Northeastern Conference Championship alive. The win completed a season sweep for the Magicians.
Reece Moore led the attack with two goals and three assists, while Cam Waldman (3 goals), Charlie Grenier (2 goals, assist), Will Sullivan (3 assists) and Jack Whipple (2 goals, assist) had three points each. Greg Motorny (goal) and Cam Harvey (assist) also contributed.
Head coach John Wilkens said the Magicians’ destiny, in terms of conjuring up a title, is in their own hands.
“Unfortunately, we lost to Swampscott by a goal earlier this year, so we still have to win out to do it and beat Masco and Winthrop to win it,” he said. “There’s a few things we have to clean up and we still have a lot of injured guys but, overall, I’m pretty happy. A few times, we did make the short pass and we dropped the ball a few times which probably would have led to a goal, but that’s how you learn. I can’t complain about the team effort today.”
For Peabody, Antonio Anzalone and Matthew Bettencourt had one goal each. Brandon Barone notched one assist.
Goalie Aidan Haight helped contain the damage for the Tanners. He made 23 saves, several of them from point-blank range. With a 7-1 lead going into the second half, the Magicians bombarded Haight with a relentless attack over the first two minutes. He denied attempts by Moore and Grenier, then repelled a wrap-around attempt from Sullivan and Waldman (twice) in a 20-second span before Waldman finally broke through on a man-up shift to make it 8-1 with just under nine minutes left in the quarter. Grenier put the nail in the Tanners’ coffin 40 seconds later with a blistering bullet to make it 9-1.
“Aidan does that almost every game,” said Peabody coach Jason Marshall. “Our defense does as well as they can, but he makes saves that no goalie can be expected to save. He definitely keeps it a lot closer than it really could be… He’s had to do that a lot this season. It’s exciting to watch. He’s just a very talented kid and I’m glad he’s only a junior, so we are lucky to have him back for another year.”
Wilkens agreed, and also gave credit to Magicians’ goalie Finn Gallup (9 saves) for his performance, limiting the Tanners to just two goals.
“Their guy kept them in the game with some really nice saves,” Wilkens said. “Our goalie played really well and had a really solid game. I thought he did a good job clearing the ball and his presence today was nice.
He wasn’t done there, however.
“I thought Jack Whipple played a nice game at midfield and Cam Waldman, too. Our attackmen Reece Moore, Will Sullivan, all of them had nice solid games. They were looking for their slides and hitting the open man. And Charlie’s been working on his shot and I’m glad it came to fruition.”
Marblehead (9-3) is back in action Monday at Piper Field against visiting Masconomet at 4 p.m.
“We’ve played them once and we won at their place, but they have good athletes and some big kids, so it’s going to be a challenge,” Wilkens said.
Marblehead is ranked No. 23 in the MIAA Division 2 power rankings. Wilkens said he thinks that’s “just about where we should be as we’ve got some challenging out-of-conference games in the last five games.”
Peabody’s next game is Saturday at 2 p.m. at Medford. The Tanners are on the tournament bubble with a No. 36 ranking in the Division 1 rankings.
“It’s definitely not going to be easy as we have a few games coming up that we really need to win – Medford being one of them,” Marshall said. “We really have to start winning out and getting good quality wins. Luckily, we are able to play against some teams that are above us in the standings. Medford is in a similar position as us… That’s a huge game for us and, hopefully, we can come out on the good side of it.”
