HYANNIS – With top high school boys’ lacrosse teams from across the state filtering into W. Leo Shields Memorial Field Tuesday morning, the host Barnstable High Red Raiders knew they had their work cut out for them.
Barnstable High senior co-captain Bo Delaney wheels around the Walpole net with Rebel defender Dan Ryan hot on his trail.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos
When the dust finally settled on this hard-played, fast-paced affair, however, the Walpole Rebels came out on top, 6-2.
Facing Walpole (4-2) in the eight-team Creators’ Crosse Cup Tournament , Barnstable (3-5) came at the visiting Rebels full bore as both teams put on a mutual display of stellar defense in a rare, scoreless first quarter.
“I thought we played some pretty good defense in the first quarter,” Barnstable head coach Chris Whidden said. “And certainly Nick Passalugo played an exceptional game today. He made some saves against some pretty difficult shots.”
No question about it, the senior co-captain made 14 saves in all throughout the game, several of which came at point blank range.
But the Rebels came out in the second quarter with a vengeance and netted three unanswered goals before Barnstable could make some offensive adjustments and put one in the net.
Walpole’s Luke O’Neill netted a pair of goals within the span of an incredible 0:12 seconds with the first coming at the 8:22 mark of the second quarter, followed by his second marker for a 2-0 score at 8:10. O’Neill’s first goal was assisted by Michael Mazzotta and his second goal was assisted by Ryan Tierney. Kevin Sullivan made it 3-0 (unassisted) at 5:06.
The host Red Raiders willed themselves quickly back into this rough-and-tumble affair less than a minute later when sophomore midfielder Brener DeSouza found himself some open space 15 yards out from the Walpole goal and attacked with his first and only score of the day.
Barnstable rode that momentum quickly as just 0:09 seconds later Reece Hoppensteadt found an open Liam Shields off the right corner of the Rebels’ net and Shields buried it to make it 3-2.
But that was all the Red Raiders would be able to muster as the Rebels took that 3-2 lead into the halftime intermission and then came out with a calmer, more strategic game plan in the second half.
At the 6:36 mark of the third quarter, Walpole’s O’Neill made it a hat trick for the day when he scored unassisted to make it 4-2 but make no mistake, Barnstable extended its fullest effort to date for the remainder of the frame, led by Passalugo’s inspiring stick and body work between the pipes. Barnstable held the visitors scoreless until the start of the fourth quarter.
Walpole’s Chris O’Connell (5) gets chased by Barnstable’s Liam Shields (6) and Jack Pipatti (7) in the Rebels’ 6-2 win over the host Red Raiders.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos
Just over 0:30 seconds into the final stanza, Sullivan scored his second goal of the day to make it 5-2 (11:26), assisted by Mazzotta.
Credit was certainly due to Walpole goalie Charlie Harrington, a junior, who made an almost equal number of saves as his counterpart Passalugo and who used as much of the field as possible to set his teammates up on the other end.
The Red Raiders held the Rebels scoreless for nearly the next 11 minutes but with just 0:59 left in the game, Ben Lucas scored to make it 6-2.
“They’re a very good team,” Coach Whidden said. “They were better than some of the teams we’ve lost to this season.”
Walpole will face St. John’s Prep Wednesday at 2:00 pm at Franklin High as part of the continuation of the Creators’ Crosse Cup. St. John’s Prep was slated to face Franklin at 12:30 at Barnstable High, following the Walpole-Barnstable match-up.
Barnstable will face St. John’s Prep in Andover on Thursday at 10:00 am. The teams playing in this year’s Creators’ Cup are Barnstable, Walpole, St. John’s Prep, Franklin, Billerica, Beverly, Lexington and Masconomet.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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