Second half spurge sends Marblehead past arch rival Swampscott
May 20—SWAMPSCOTT — John Wilkens joked after the fact that perhaps it was the "long ride we had" all the way from Marblehead to Blocksidge Field in Swampscott — a 2.8-mile jaunt, for the uninformed — that had his Marblehead boys lacrosse team playing so sluggishly in the first half of Thursday's game against their arch rivals.
Truth be told, the host Big Blue had a lot to do with that. They were aggressive, played with conviction and were responsible defensively. Thus, the two teams were knotted up at halftime.
Then the Magicians made a few tweaks, found their offense — and were off and running.
Seven unanswered second half goals, including three by senior captain Josh Robertson and a pair from junior midfielder Connor Cronin, enabled the Magicians to prevail, 10-3, on a cool, misty afternoon.
"Toughness, pride ... these guys know what it means to play Swampscott," Wilkens said of the Magicians (12-2), winners of 10 straight this year and 48 in a row in Northeastern Conference play.
Robertson, the team's leading scorer with 46 goals, added an assist while Cronin, who finished with three goals all told, added two assists. The team captains are 1-2 on the Magicians in scoring with 66 and 65 points, respectively.
Equally as important was the fact that Marblehead shut out an opponent over the second half of play for the second time in four days, having done so to Peabody on Monday. This came after Swampscott's skilled senior, Zack Pierce, scored once and assisted on tallies by Liam Keaney and Cole Hamernick in a spirited first half.
Goalie Finn Maniaci had 11 saves in net for Marblehead, playing particularly well in that decisive second half, while defenders Charlie Pingree, Eliot Pluss, Jack Aneshansley, long stick middie Eddie Johns and junior captain Sam Annese played lockdown ball in front of him.
Big Blue netminder Aidan Breault also had a strong game between the pipes, turning aside 13 shots.
Swampscott was without its leading scorer, Jack Russo (injured foot) and another difference maker offensively in Christian Urbano, leaving its offense a bit one-dimenstional in that they were all right-handed shooters. Still, they matched up well with the Magicians 6-on-6 over the first half.
As is often the case, though, when they began turning the ball over in the third quarter, they were forced to pay by plucking goals out of their own net.
"We had a couple of lapses on our slides, a couple of lapses in transition, and got a little too eager to score when we didn't need to," said head coach Geoff Beckett, his Big Blue now 8-8 with one regular season game remaining. "When that happens, you start turning the ball over, and with a team as talented as they are, if you give Marblehead extra possessions they'll find a way to beat you.
"There were two turnovers by us on the first two possessions of the second half, and they scored on both," he added. "When you turn the ball over, your game plan starts to fall apart."
Robertson broke the tie for good shortly after the third quarter began, beating the Big Blue's attempted slide with clear shots on the cage. Two such tallies in a 32-second span gave the visitors a 5-3 lead.
That grew to 6-3 when Annese scooped a ground ball, used his long pole to weave through the Swampscott defense and rifled a shot home for a rare defensive goal. Cronin buried a rocket shot on the next possession, making it 7-3 after three quarters.
"I give our guys credit for rebounding the way they did," Wilkens said. "Back-to-back subpar first halves aren't good, but it's a good sign to bounce back and play much better that we did.
"Seeing Sam strip their guy of the ball, take it downfield and score against a very good goaltender; that's a good feeling if you're a pole, too."
Junior Carter Laramie (2 goals), Robertson and Cronin ("he's such an all purpose guy all over the field," said Wilkens) finished the scoring in the final frame. Charlie Grenier had scored Marblehead's first goal.
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