Sports
St. John's Prep Lacrosse Defeated In D1 Finals
"My hats off to my team for sticking with it and playing hard for the whole season," said St. John's Prep lacrosse coach John Roy, after the Eagles were defeated in the D1 Finals against Duxbury.
For the third year in a row, the St. John’s Prep lacrosse team faced Duxbury in the East Division 1 finals.
Having split the two previous meetings, the ninth-seeded Eagles (14-8) were looking to take the series, and with it, the state championship. But it wasn’t to be as the third-seeded Dragons (19-2) unleashed an offensive juggernaut defeating the Eagles, 16-9, and reclaiming the state title Tuesday night at Harvard Stadium.
“They were just electrifying on offense,” said St. John’s coach John Roy. “Between the restraining lines, they were all incredibly fast, skilled with the ball, made good decisions. It was an impressive performance by them. They were terrific.”
The Dragons were led in the offensive department by senior attacker Kane Haffey, who netted a game-high six goals. Teammate Bryan Barry was close behind notching four marks.
Duxbury jumped out to an early 4-1 lead to begin the contest, but Eagle senior midfielder Jimmy O’Connell (four goals) was able to cut the deficit when he faked a shot, maneuvured around his defender, and scored.
Going into the second quarter, the Eagles found themselves down 7-2, but managed to outscore the Dragons 3-1 during that period. The last goal coming as O’Connell grabbed a ground ball and fired a low shot past Duxbury goalie Henry Buonagurio.
That placed St. John’s Prep within striking distance, which was a little too close for Duxbury as the Dragons came out of halftime to reel off five straight goals and put the game out of reach.
“We would have loved to have won, but we never would have guessed that we would be [in the finals] again,” said Roy. “We were 2-4, 4-6 at the start of the season. My hats off to my team for sticking with it and playing hard for the whole season.”
