St. John’s Boys Lax Wins Central Division Crown In OT Thriller

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Monday, June 10, 2013

Matt Metcalf, GoLocalWorcester Sports Contributor

St. John's captured the Central Division II boys lacrosse title on Saturday.

St. John's boys lacrosse won its first Central Mass title since 2010 on Saturday with an 11-10 overtime victory over second-seeded Grafton.

The stars came to play in the first quarter for the Pioneers on Saturday, getting two goals from Josh Freilich, and one apiece from Navy commit Drew Smiley, Nazareth College commit Hunter Burdick, and Patch Ryan. Tyler Reilly, who was second in Central Mass with 97 points this season, had Grafton's lone goal in the first quarter, giving St. John's a 5-1 lead right out of the gates.

However, the tables completely turned in the second quarter. Grafton outscored St. John's 7-1 in the second quarter alone, giving Grafton an 8-6 advantage going into halftime, on two goals apiece from Reilly and senior Sawyer Coleman, while Anthony D'Amico, Mike Schena, and Chase Kapuscienski netted one apiece.

St. John's roared back to start the second half, scoring three straight on two goals from Burdick and one from Freilich, regaining the lead for the Pioneers 9-8. Reilly answered shortly after with his fourth goal of the game, tying the score 9-9 heading into the fourth quarter.

Fight to the finish

Much of the fourth quarter was a stalemate, with both teams playing defensively sound with the score tied. Freilich was finally able to break the tie with 4:18 remaining to give the Pioneers a 10-9 advantage, scoring his fifth goal of the contest. However, Schena had other plans, tying the game up at 10-10 on his second goal of the game for Grafton, sending the game into overtime.

That set the stage for St John's junior Kevin Butler, who picked a good time to score his first goal of the game, finding the back of the net just 22 seconds into the sudden-death overtime period, clinching an 11-10 victory for the Pioneers.

St. John's was the top overall seed and made it to the Central Division II final with an 8-6 semifinal victory over two-time defending division champion Algonquin.