By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
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Photo by Jim Powers
Goalie Joe Bopp makes a save during Saturday's win over Bourne. |
The boys varsity lacrosse team worked toward improving its playoff seeding this week, adding three more wins to its season total. Nantucket beat New Bedford 11-5 last Wednesday, Bourne 8-4 Saturday and Fairhaven 21-2 Tuesday to improve to 13-3.
The Whalers have three big games remaining on the regular-season schedule. Nantucket will host the rematch against Maritime East-leading Barnstable this afternoon, followed by a home game against Division III powerhouse Cohasset Saturday and a trip to rival Martha’s Vineyard to close out the schedule next Wednesday.
“We just want to continue to improve every day. We have proven to ourselves that we can compete with any of the teams on our schedule. The question is putting together a full four quarters and not having a lapse where you let your opponent get on a scoring streak and not having a lapse in offensive fundamentals,” head coach Rick Blair said. “These next three games will do a lot to show us where we are at, what we are good at, and it is going to have a lot to do with how the tournament is seeded.”
Against this week’s skilled opponents, the Whalers will be looking to dictate the pace of the game to help get the offense into a rhythm early rather than letting the other team set the tempo.
The Whalers got some practice against visiting Fairhaven Tuesday.
“As we have all year, the key is to spread the scoring out, have nice long possessions on offense and have a lot of touches for everybody every time we have the ball. We wanted to dictate the pace and not get into a situation where the ball was on the ground a lot for a lot of sloppy goals and I thought to a pretty good degree we did that,” Blair said.
In the first meeting between the two teams, the Blue Devils played a passive zone scheme, but Tuesday mixed in more of a pressure defense, cutting off passes in the midfield. The Whalers were able to adjust in the second quarter, making more patient second- and third-looks passes which opened up a number of scoring opportunities.
Leading scorer Ray DeCosta led the way with six goals and two assists, while Gaven Norton had a productive game with four goals. Hunter Day, Andrew Haddon and Teddy Fales (one assist) scored three times each, while Taylor Thayer and Alex Rezendes scored one goal apiece.
The third midfield line of junior varsity call-ups Ethan Lockley, Codie Perry and Kevin McLean saw a number of minutes Tuesday.
Against Bourne Saturday the Whalers had a tough time jump-starting any offense against the talented Canalmen keeper. Nantucket put at least seven solid shots on net and two more bounced off the post, keeping the game close early. Bourne scored twice before the Whalers even got on the board.
In the second quarter, however, Nantucket exploited the goalie’s weakness for two goals, going high to the right side both times. DeCosta fed Henry Farrell for the first goal and Norton for the second in the same spot. But Bourne added a third goal for the 3-2 lead at the break.
Farrell took over in the second half, dominating face-offs and taking long shots from the restraining line. The senior co-captain scored twice from the same spot to give Nantucket the 4-2 edge en route to the win.
Farrell and Norton finished with three goals each, while DeCosta and Thayer added one apiece. Jamie Viera and Henry Toole both played well for the Whalers, solidifying the midfield at both the offensive and defensive ends. There were 19 penalties and eight conduct calls in the physical game.
Against New Bedford on the road Thursday, the Whalers opened up a 6-3 advantage in the first half.
“They came to play and they played their very best and that’s something we are going to see from every Maritime League opponent we face,” Blair said. “We got off to a little bit of a sluggish start. It was a real sloppy field. There were areas where you could not get footing and that hurt us in the first quarter.”
In the second half the Whalers focused on keeping two players behind the net and looking for the open man on the wing. The move opened up Norton for multiple scoring opportunities. He finished with three goals and one assist, while DeCosta tallied three goals and two assists. Thayer (one assist) and Viera scored two goals each, while Farrell added one goal and two assists. Josh Sibley Liddle contributed an assist and Fales tallied two.
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