By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
Drew Whelden scored a game-high four goals and Jesse Sandole added two goals and three assists to lead the boys lacrosse team to an 11-1 victory over Nauset last Thursday.
Brennan Dooley, Sam Siegel (one assist), Robert Anderson, Caleb Wiley (two assists) and Ry Murphy also scored as the Whalers (3-1) spread out the offense and remained undefeated (3-0) in Maritime League play.
“Our focus was a lot better, and we played a lot better between the restraining lines. Even though we needed to covert more shots, it was a dominant performance overall,” head coach Rick Blair said.
The Whalers have outscored their competition 47-12 so far this season, but according to Blair, they have yet to be challenged. Nantucket will face one of the biggest challenges of the season when they return from vacation to face Martha’s Vineyard this Wednesday at home.
“I just hope that our guys can keep their conditioning at a decent level and keep lacrosse on their minds. We have only two days back after vacation. We are playing a good Vineyard team that is scoring a lot of goals, so we have to be ready for that one,” Blair said.
Against Nauset’s aggressive style of play last Thursday, the Whalers capitalized on a decent number of the Warriors mistakes, especially in the first half. Nantucket scored three man-up goals in the game on seven Nauset penalties. While the percentage of goals in the advantage situation improved and was sufficient for the win, it is still an area Blair is looking to fine-tune.
“In a game such as (Thursday’s), that type of thing may not seem to be such a big deal, but when it was a one- or two-goal game you can’t afford to have that type of play,” he said.
The Whalers did not have a hard time getting in front of Nauset early and maintained their composure even against the chippy play.
“Every time we took the ball from up top and looked to the crease, there was a man standing on the crease unguarded. The looks were there,” Blair said. “I think it was a pretty dominant performance by a much more stick-skilled team.”
Sandole converted the first goal of the game less than five minutes in with an unassisted shot from a good distance out. Just over a minute later, Dooley put the Whalers up 2-0 on a man-up goal assisted by Sandole. In the second man-up situation of the game, Nantucket converted again as Ethan Farrell sent the feed to Whelden cutting in front of the net for the 3-0 advantage.
The Whalers were up 4-0 after one period and 6-0 at the half after out-shooting the Warriors 16-3.
The Warriors scored their only goal of the game at the 10:31 mark of the fourth quarter after a loose ball in front of the net created a one-on-one shot for the score.
But the Whalers were far from finished. Following goals from Sandole and Wiley, with under five minutes remaining Murphy took the ball to the goal, dodged three defenders and took an off-balance shot for the score. Siegel added one more for the 11-1 final.
Eric Rogers played well in the middle for Nantucket, while on defense Casey Santos, Eric Santos and Josh Taaffe kept the shots away from goalie Tucker Harvey, who needed only 10 saves in the win.
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