FALMOUTH – With a majority of the Falmouth starters watching from the sidelines, the Sandwich boys lacrosse team dominated Wednesday’s matchup from start to finish, featuring eight different goal scorers and coasting to a 15-3 victory over their Atlantic Coast League rival.
Sandwich High’s Josh Souza delivers a big hit on Falmouth’s Brennan McIntyre (44) during a scramble for a ground ball at midfield.
Phil Garceau/Capecod.com Sports
The Sandwich (10-5, 5-2 ACL) offense is at its best when boasting multiple threats in the offensive end and the Blue Knights did just that as five different attackers found the net in the opening 15 minutes.
Zack Gorrasi and Brian Wahle led the offensive onslaught with three goals each in the game while James Buttafucco (five assists), Alec Henderson, and Jordan Leary (four assists) all found the net twice. Owen Caggiano, Tyler Calrins and Josh Souza rounded out the scoring with single tallies.
“I thought we really played our game today and did everything we were supposed to do,” Sandwich coach Mike McNeill said. “We made very few mistakes today and weren’t going to let them outwork us.”
It was a far cry from the April 17th meeting between the two teams, a game in which Sandwich escaped with an 11-10 overtime victory and had been missing its seniors.
The Clippers (3-10, 1-6 ACL) were without nine of the 10 seniors on their roster for temporary, one-game disciplinary reasons. The lone senior to see action was Andrew Franks.
With their offensive threats sidelined, the Clippers struggled to produce in the opening half as they put together just four possessions.
Falmouth goalie George Armstrong did his best to keep the Clippers in the game early, coming up with three saves in the opening quarter to keep his team within striking distance. He had two more saves to begin the second quarter but the relentless Sandwich offense eventually punched a hole through the Falmouth fortress to open the floodgates.
Sandwich High’s James Buttafucco spins on Falmouth’s Jared Williamson.
Phil Garceau/Capecod.com Sports
Behind two second-quarter goals from Gorrasi and Wahle, the Blue Knights exploded for eight goals to take a 10-0 lead into the half.
“I thought we played great defense and came out and possessed the ball on offense and that was it, we just executed the offense,” McNeill said.
The play of Owen Caggiano on the faceoff X was a big reason behind Sandwich’s second quarter success.
While Falmouth was missing a good chunk of its starters, one of its most important players was still on the field in draw-man Nolan Enneguess.
But Caggiano excelled on the X, taking away one of the Clippers biggest weapons and winning seven-of-nine draws in the second quarter to feed the Blue Knight offense.
The Sandwich defense was just as impressive, keeping the Falmouth offense off the scoreboard until 7:19 mark of the third quarter when Alex Manos skipped a shot by Sandwich goalie Gavin Guarino but by that point the Blue Knights had built an insurmountable, 12-1 lead.
Enneguess ripped the twine twice early in the fourth quarter and Manos scored his second goal of the game as well when McNeill emptied his bench to account for all of the Falmouth scoring.
With just three games remaining in the season, and coming off big wins over Apponequet and Falmouth, the Blue Knights seem to be playing their best ball of the season as they ready for the Div. 2 Sectionals, something McNeill feels confident about.
“We are where we want to be going into the tournament and especially with the play of our goalie Gavin Guarino, we are exactly where we want to be.”
— Phil Garceau story for Capecod.com Sports. Edited by Sean Walsh, Capecod.com Sports Editor
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