LYNNFIELD — This one was by no means easy.
Thursday night at Pioneer Stadium, Lynnfield’s boys lacrosse team (14-3) celebrated Senior Day and in a Houdini-like escape, somehow managed to beat visiting Essex Tech, 15-14, in overtime.
The win also clinched the Cape Ann League Baker Division title for the Pioneers.
Head coach Pat Lamusta said the last time the Pioneers won a league title was in 2009.
“I’m 99% sure we have it as Ipswich has three league losses. We only have two and we are done with league play,” Lamusta said. “It’s been a long time since we won one.”
But while it was a day to honor the seniors, it was a couple of juniors who came up about as big as you can get with a game on the line.
With about a minute left in the overtime session, goalie Ben Pimentel made a game-saving stop – one of several big saves he made in the game – giving Lynnfield possession and an opportunity to hold for a last shot.
Enter Owen Considine (goal, assist). Considine had come up empty to this point, but picked a great time to – at last – find the back of the net. With about 30 seconds to go, he drove to the net, only to be blocked by a Hawks’ double team. He broke past with a couple of pretty spin moves outside the crease and drilled the game-winner home with only 19 seconds left on the clock.
“That was a big save by Ben and then a big shot by Owen to give us the win,” Lamusta said. “We definitely have some things to work on to pick up the pieces and we still have a long way to go, but overall, it was a good win – especially for our seniors. They were my first group as freshmen after COVID and many had never played before. We literally plucked them out of history class and told them we’d get them equipment from Play it Again and we told them we would teach them the game. So, this is a big win for them and all of the seniors.”
Will Norton (5 goals, 4 assists) had a monster game with nine points, while Kelan Cardinal had five goals and Mike Murphy added four. Pimental finished with 10 saves.
The Pioneers are ranked No. 4 in the Division 4 power rankings. Should they stay in the top four, the team will have home-field advantage until the semifinals.
Lynnfield wraps up its regular season Friday at home against non-leaguer Melrose (3 p.m.), the No. 27 ranked team in Division 2.
“Melrose is a very good team that plays in a very competitive league, so it will be a challenge,” Lamusta said.
