BURLINGTON — It certainly wasn’t easy, but the St. John’s Prep boys lacrosse team moved to within one win of its fourth straight Division 1 state title on Tuesday.
The Prep put itself on the precipice of another championship thanks to a hard-fought 6-4 win over Boston College High on the Burlington High football field. The BC High Eagles made it as tough as possible for their Prep alter egos. BC High goalie Charlie McCullough made 15 saves, and his teammates worked very hard to put the clamps on St. John’s star Jake Vana all evening.
Still, despite the in-your-shirt defense, Vana scored three of The Prep’s goals. He understood that BC High had concocted a special defense for him.
“It means I’m doing something right,” Vana joked afterward. Then, he got serious.
“You have to do two things,” Vana said. “First, I’m a senior. This could be my last game. So whatever I do, I’m going to do it, giving it my all and if I go down, I’m going down swinging.
“Second,” he said, “I know I have teammates out there, and a lot of them are great players. You just have to trust your teammates.”
Brendan Powers scored twice for St. John’s, which plays Friday for the state title against No. 7Needham with location and time TBD.
As it turned out, a brief first-period mini-flurry enabled The Prep to keep BC High at bay like some kind of tantalus. Madden McGowan opened the scoring for The Prep, and moments later Vana scored the first of his three.
St. John’s (20-2) never trailed after that. Twice, BC High closed the gap to a single goal, but could get no closer.
Two BC High goals, by Marshall Rice and Nick Emsing, tied the score by the end of the quarter. BC High didn’t score again until Tripp Schuhwerk got on the board with 1:55 left in the third quarter.
Meantime, The Prep went back up by two goals with another brief burst at the beginning of the second quarter, with Powers and Vana doing the honors. Four minutes into the third quarter, Powers came through again to make it 5-2.
Every goal was a struggle, and a lot of the reason for that was McCullough, who stood on his head.
“He was great,” said Vana. “He’s a senior. It was his last game, and he fought like heck to keep them in it.”
St. John’s switched goalies, as it often does, in the second half as Matteus DuPlessis subbed in for Max Putney. BC High had closed the game to within a goal early in the fourth quarter on Emsing’s second of the game. BC High’s Jacob Adams was right at his doorstep with the equalizer — except that DuPlessis stoned him cold, stopping the shot as the ball went straight up in the air.
St. John’s recovered the loose ball with three minutes to go. And two minutes later, Vana scored into an empty net to make it 6-4.
“Max really came through for us,” said Prep coach John Pynchon. “He was our player of the game, because of saves like that.”
As The Prep gets ready for the ultimate game, Pynchon isn’t looking too far ahead.
“I am just looking forward to having a great practice,” he said.
“We have a lot of players with bumps and bruises who need some recovery time,” Pynchon said.
The Eagles will have until Friday to recover before they try and bring home their fourth straight state title.
