Watertown Successful Boys' Lacrosse Season Ends in Overtime in the State Tourney

The following was provided by Watertown Lacrosse's Bob Johnson:

As the 23^rd seed in the MIAA Div. 3 East Tournament, not much was expected from the Watertown High boy’s lacrosse team, especially against tourney regular and No. 7 seed Archbishop Williams. But after a miraculous late fourth quarter three-goal comeback, the Raiders finally fell 10-9 to the Bishops in heartbreaking fashion in a double overtime thriller in Braintree on Thursday night.

Watertown, in just its second season as a varsity program, ends the season at 11-11, after recording its first ever post-season win against 10th seeded Fairhaven earlier in the week. 

Thanks to goals from sophomore Matt Donnell (1 goal), classmate Joe Kelland (1G), and senior co-captain Mike Busconi (1G), the Raiders jumped out to a quick 3-2 lead after the first 12 minutes. But the Bishops offense came to life in the second frame, and dominated the offensive side of the field to take a 6-4 halftime lead. The margin could have, and should have been much worse, were it not for the stellar play of senior co-captain and Middlesex League All-Star Ben Sampson. Once again, assigned to the opposing team’s leading scorer, Sampson put forth a tremendous solo effort to keep the lead at only 2 goals. 

The teams traded two third-quarter tallies apiece to make it an 8-6 Archie’s lead after 36 minutes of play. Senior co-captain Dino Flori (2G) added a tally, but once again the highlight goal of the game came off the stick of junior Joe Farrar (1 goal, 1 assist). First, shut down defensemen and senior co-captain Jack Brackett started a fast break with some help from sophomore defenseman Nick Giunta.  

Moving out of their own zone with quick passes to junior middie Connor Demore, the trio eventually hooked up with the streaking Farrar at mid-field. From there Farrar, a three sport athlete and quarterback on the football team, took it the last 45 yards to the cage by himself and buried a fierce forehand laser. This single act of athleticism would spark the offense in the final frame, as would the single act of defense from net minder Justin Pelletier. The senior co-captain and heart of the defense made 19 saves in the game, none bigger than late in the third quarter when he stoned not one, but two of the best Bishops attackmen.

After falling behind 9-6 early in the final quarter, Watertown head coach Chris Burns called a crucial time out on the next offensive possession to diagram a play that would spark a comeback.  And that spark came in the play of freshman Anthony Busconi (2 G, 2 A). First, he cut the lead to 9-7 with a sparkling solo effort split dodge coming out from behind the goal. Then he dished a perfect pass to junior Matt Johnson (1G, 2 A) to cut the lead to one with 3 minutes to go. And with just over a minute to play he scored the equalizer with another nifty move out of the corner to send it to overtime. It was an awesome display of will, determination, and domination out of the young freshman.

Thanks to junior Daniel Loprete, who won 14-20 face-offs, the visiting Raiders dominated possession time in the first 4-minute sudden death overtime period, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Unfortunately, it would be the last time the offense would touch the ball. Halfway into the second OT period, the Bishops capitalized on a loose ball scramble to bury the game-winner and advance to the Elite 8.       

It is perhaps ironic that this historic season began and ended with two 10-9 overtime thrillers, each ending on opposite sides of the emotional scale. Way back on March 30 Farrar buried an OT game winner to beat cross town rival Belmont.  In that game, as well as the tournament game, the team trailed late, only to make fast and furious comebacks. In that game, as well as the tournament game, the team received offense from several different goal scorers, and team defense from at least eight different defenders. Team work? You betcha. Solid returning nucleus? You betcha.  Raiders lacrosse on the state map? As the team would say after beating Belmont ... hell yeah!