BATTLE OF CAPE ANN: ME boys lax slips past Gloucester in defensive battle

Nick Curcuru, Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
·4 min read

May 28—The Gloucester and Manchester Essex boys lacrosse teams renewed the rivalry on Friday night at Newell Stadium. The Fishermen and Hornets historically have a knack of putting together close and competitive games, but have not played since 2019 due to COVID-19 protocols, which eliminated the 2020 season completely and saw teams only play within their conferences during the 2021 regular season.

Playing for the first time in three years, the two Cape Ann teams put together another tightly contested game. In the end, Manchester Essex got the better of the fourth quarter play en route to a 6-5 win, its first win over Gloucester since 2017.

"It's always a good game when we play and it's been a few years since we've beaten them so it was nice to pull this one out," said Manchester Essex head coach Jon Siderewicz, whose team finishes off the regular season at 7-10. "Both teams played well on defense, we were just able to come up with some big stops in the fourth quarter."

In a back-and-forth contest where the lead changed hands three times and neither team led by more than one goal, the Hornets took the win thanks to a strong fourth quarter push.

Trailing by a goal, Quinn Brady tied the game for the fifth time of the night with his third goal of the game just over two minutes into the final frame.

At 5-5, the defenses took over for the rest of the night, turning aside scoring chances for the next eight-plus minutes of play until Ben DiFluri got his second goal of the game with 1:12 to play to give the Hornets a 6-5 lead.

Gloucester had one final chance in the final 30 seconds, but Manchester Essex goalie Jack DiPasquale made the save on a bounce shot to keep his team ahead.

The Fishermen (6-10) had a few lengthy possessions, but strong positional defense from Manchester Essex kept them off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.

Wyatt Riehl, Brennan Twombly and Andrew Amigo played well on defense for Manchester Essex as Gloucester did not have a ton of room to get off shots.

"We played them man-to-man tonight and did a great job matching up on defense," Siderewicz said. "It was a total team effort tonight and Jack made the big save when we needed it."

Gloucester also played well defensively with Keith Horne, Ryan Frates, Jason McNiff and Nick White making the Hornets earn every inch of the field. The Fishermen, however, could not put together enough consistent offense against a stingy Manchester Essex defense."

"They did a good job shutting down our offense," Gloucester head coach Geoff Kennedy said. "We played well on defense but we had trouble with some clears and those turnovers added up after a while."

Gloucester opened the scoring five minutes in on a Colby Jewell goal, his first of three on the night and the only goal of the first quarter.

The Hornets got two quick ones early in the second frame from DiFluri and Quinn Brady to take a 2-1 lead, but Gloucester responded with the next two from Jewell and Frank DeSisto to take the lead back at 3-2. Manchester Essex tied it with 1:12 to play in the half on a goal from Dougie Pratt, putting home a pass from DiFluri to make it 3-3 at the half.

Robbie Schuster gave Gloucester the lead 20 seconds into the second half, but Manchester Essex again came back to tie it on a Brady goal. Jewell made it 5-4 Gloucester with a goal in the final minutes of the third before Manchester Essex took control in the fourth.

The Hornets now wait their opening round opponent in the Division 4 State Tournament. They were ranked No. 21 in their division prior to Friday's win. Gloucester, on the other hand, has one more regular season game remaining on Tuesday at Hamilton-Wenham (4 p.m.). The Fishermen were ranked No. 37 in Division 3 heading into Friday's game and are unlikely to make the postseason even with a win in the regular season finale.