Boys' Lax Falls to Late-Game Blitz by Magicians

A fourth quarter explosion on the Magicians' side of the lacrosse field powered Marblehead past the Danvers boys to a 16-7 win Thursday afternoon, netting .

With the Headers up 9-7 after three quarters, Marblehead co-captains Alex and Hunter Whitmore lit up Falcons' goalie Ryan Fecteau six times in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. The 16th goal was contributed by Marblehead's Sam Fox.

The late surge proved to be too much to overcome, leaving the Falcons still hunting for a win early in the season.

Marblehead and Danvers were knotted up at one early after Ian Maag scored for the Headers and Danvers' Will Jennings potted the first of his three goals on the day in the first two minutes of play.

Marblehead led after one quarter, 3-2, on goals by Brian Gellert, and Maag’s second, with 44 seconds left to play. Jennings had tied the score at two, with his second of the afternoon at 3:50.

Jacob Maselek put Marblehead up by two again when he blew a shot by Fecteau’s right side at the 11-minute mark of the second quarter.

“Our defense had a tough time matching Marblehead’s intensity,” Danvers coach Tim Murphy said after the game.

Marblehead went up 5-2 in the second quarter, but the Falcons came storming back to knot it at five, with three power play goals. Mike Trocchi scored twice and Jennings picked up his third before a penalty against Marblehead expired.

The Headers went into the break up by a 6-5 score.

Trocchi scored twice in the third, matched by two goals by Alex Whitmore and a single score off a great individual rush up the middle by Header senior Oliver Gregory.

Marblehead outshot Danvers by a wide margin heading into the final quarter, with only Fecteau keeping the Headers from a runaway win.

The disparity in shots finally caught up to the Falcons in the fourth, when the Headers erupted for seven unanswered goals.

With Danvers’ Drew Larson off for a push, Fox buried a power-play goal with just under five minutes to play to close out the scoring.

Fecteau finished with 37 saves for the Falcons; Marblehead freshman goalie Wilson Lautner made 16 saves for Marblehead.

“The kids did a good job, and I told them that,” Marblehead coach John Wilkens said. “There’s no substitute for hard work, and we put in the work this afternoon.”

The Falcons next host Pentucket on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

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