KINGSTON – Before the Bourne High School boys’ lacrosse team even took the field prior to its Division 3 South Sectional first round match-up with No. 7 Sacred Heart, the Canalmen showcased an intensity and excitement that the Saints seemingly lacked.
Bourne High School’s Tom Glinski celebrates with Tim Johnson after an early Canalmen goal.
Phil Garceau/Capecod.com Sports
It didn’t take long for that desire to spill onto the field, as the Canalmen scored two goals in the opening two minutes of the game and sent their sideline into an emotional frenzy while paving the way to a dominant 15-3 victory.
It marked the first postseason victory for the 10th seeded Canalmen since 2009.
“The intensity comes from the kids and their desire to win. I can do my best to get them fired up, but basically it’s them going out there and doing it,” Bourne head coach Tim Crowley said. “They wanted this win. They wanted to get further than ‘one and done’ in the playoffs and it’s a testament to how bad they wanted to win.”
Bourne (14-5) advances to the MIAA Div. 3 South Sectional quarterfinals on Thursday (June 4), where it will travel to face a familiar foe in South Coast Conference-rival Old Rochester Regional at 5:00 pm. The Bulldogs, who are seeded second in the bracket, won both meetings with Bourne this season, 14-9 and 14-13.
The scoring onslaught began just 90 seconds into the game when the Canalmen forced a turnover deep in their attacking end and fed Ben Avakian for the easy goal.
Nick Pavilonis kept the quick strike offense going when he won the ensuing faceoff and Shaun Griffin doubled up the Bourne lead just over two minutes into the game.
Bourne’s Jake Girard forces the Saints’ Lauren Simpson to turn the ball over.
Phil Garceau/Capecod.com Sports
The two teams traded goals before the first quarter came to a close, but the Canalmen came out with an unbridled fire in the second frame to put the game away before the half.
Behind the stellar play of Pavilonis on the faceoff X, Bourne scored the first eight goals of the quarter, beginning with Jake Girard’s goal just eight seconds in to take a 11-2 lead into the half.
“With Pav on face-offs, there’s nothing that can go wrong,” Crowley explained. “When you win 80 percent of the face-offs, that gives us ball possession, go downfield and score goals, there is nothing that beats it.”
Five separate Canalmen scored in the second quarter alone, including two from Girard, Avakian and long-stick midfielder Tim Johnson to put the game out of reach.
“I think we worked the ball around a lot and the key was moving it forward so they couldn’t move it into their zone,” Pavilonis said. “We just possessed the ball the whole game so that worked well for us.”
Three separate Canalmen netted hat tricks in the victory in Tom Glinski, Avakian and Johnson, and in addition to his dominance on the faceoff X, Pavilonis netted a pair.
“I think the key is we have really good attackmen,” Pavilonis said. “We can feed off them and once we get the ball in our zone we have a lot of offenses we can run.”
Sam Lyons didn’t see much action in net as his offense held possession more often than not, but the junior still turned in seven saves in the game.
Most of the shots that came Lyons’ way were during one of the eight extra-man opportunities that landed in the Saints lap. But behind a stellar defensive unit that forces countless turnovers throughout the game, Sacred Heart never took advantage of their extra-man opportunities.
Sacred Heart finished the season at 15-4.
— Story by Phil Garceau, contributing sportswriter for Capecod.com. Follow him on Twitter @pcgarceau
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