AC Stays Alive

The Arlington Catholic boys' lacrosse team advanced to the second round of the East Division 3 tournament Tuesday with a 12-7 win over visiting Fairhaven.

The No. 7 seed Cougars (16-5) scored five unanswered goals to open the game, including one from attacker Chris Wright nine seconds after the opening face-off.

Fairhaven (9-10), the No. 26 seed, fought back, pulling within three at 9-6 with 10 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the game. However, Cougar attacker Mike Centola delivered the dagger about seven minutes later.

After taking a hard slash from Fairhaven standout Zach Edwards, Arlington Catholic's John Busa went straight for the net. He took a number of checks from Fairhaven's other star, Taylor Motta, along the way but maintained possession and found Centola for a close-range strike, putting the game out of reach at 10-6.

Wright then scored a minute later, making it 11-6 with 4:30 left. Co-captain Joe Daly added the final tally for Arlington Catholic. Wright, Daly and Centola each had a hat-trick on the day.

Although pleased, Cougar coach Dan Brothers said his team will need to play better to advance in future rounds.

"Going forward, it's going to be tough," he said. "We got away with a win today, but we made too many mental mistakes, had too many missed opportunities. I did think we played really well at times; we just have to be more consistent."

Arlington Catholic will face the winner of No. 10 Martha's Vineyard (11-6) verse No. 23 Tri-County Tech (10-8) at Belmont Hill, its alternative home field, at 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 3. Results for that opening round game, also played Tuesday, were not available as of press time.

The Cougars have never made it past the second round in the program's seven-year history. "That'd be a big next step for our program," Brothers said. "Martha's Vineyard and Tri-County Tech are both good teams though, so we're going to have to play more consistent than we did today to take that next step forward."

Fairhaven, an independent, was playing in its first ever state tournament game, mostly due to the play of senior co-captains Edwards and Motta. Edwards had three goals Tuesday. Motta had two goals and two assists.

Chris Barrile, Justin Guanci and long-pole defender John Needham each scored one for Arlington Catholic.

Needham, Brian Ouellette, Shane Donovan and Mark Marino all played punishing defense for the Cougars, clearly establishing a physical advantage in the game. Goalie Evan Mills had six saves.