Groton-Dunstable Takes First Game of Boys Lacrosse Playoffs

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Matt Metcalf, GoLocalWorcester Sports Contributor

Matt Manning and Austin Hourani each had four goals for tenth-seeded Groton-Dunstable to lead the Crusaders to a 15-6 victory over seventh-seeded Blackstone Valley Tech in the first round of the Central Division II boys lacrosse playoffs on Tuesday afternoon.

Groton-Dunstable came out flying in the first quarter, gaining a 4-0 lead within the first ten minutes of the game with two goals by Hourani, one by Manning, and one by Tristan Lynch.

With the game looking like it was going to be a one-sided blowout, Blackstone Valley fought back with a 5-4 run to end the half, making it an 8-5 game. Blackstone Valley got goals from Nick Hobill, Matt Pender, Jacob Belanger, Brandon Audette, and Bailey Leacy to close out the first half.

However, Groton-Dunstable came flying out of the gates once again in the second half, scoring six unanswered goals to put the game out of reach. Over that stretch, Manning added his third and fourth goals of the game, Hourani added his fourth, Nick Irby scored his second and third goals, and Willy Stewart netted his first of the game.

Groton-Dunstable head coach Rick Arena knew those opening moments of the second half would decide a game where the momentum was swaying towards Blackstone Valley.

“We knew these guys were going to come to play,” Arena said. “They're in the tournament for a reason. We took them a little bit easy in the second quarter and they capitalized on it. At the half, we determined that it was all about effort and desire. I challenged the seniors to pick the team up and they came out and did that.”

Coming in as a lower seed, Arena knew that his team had the ability to beat a higher seed and saw the game as an even playing field, with each team just one loss away from elimination.

“It doesn't matter come tournament time,” Arena said. “You never know what's going to happen. We came out here and executed in the first quarter, but they came to play and showed that they weren't just going to give it to us. We had to go out and get it and we did that in the second half.”

Groton-Dunstable will now take on the winner of second-seeded Grafton High School and 15th-seeded Marlborough High School, who will play tomorrow at 4pm at Grafton.
 

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