Quick Start Not Enough For Grey Ghosts

While the Needham Rockets didn't have their best performance of the year, it was still enough to eliminate the Westford Academy Grey Ghosts from the Division 1 East boys' lacrosse sectionals at home on Saturday.

Following the Rockets' 16-7 victory over the Gray Ghosts,Needham boys lacrosse head coach Dave Wainwright said his team has a lot to work on if they want to advance through the playoffs.

“This was huge for us to get out of our system,” said Wainwright. “With all these events [the past 12-days], it definitely throws these guys off—it gets them in a different mindset—and for us to get all these things, put them behind us and get this win, now we can maybe focus on the prize.”   

The Rockets didn’t begin this game as they usually do, by winning the draw and dictating the momentum. Instead, they played timid lacrosse. Their offense fired shots countlessly and didn’t develop an offensive rhythm, which allowed the Gray Ghosts to control a majority of the first two quarters. Jay Drapeau scored his team’s first goal at 10:07 in the first quarter, while Jason Welch cashed in twice during the second.

Despite Needham’s poor start, they managed to earn the lead when Davis Cutter scored during the final minute of the first quarter to give the Rockets a 2-1 lead. Needham then added three more goals in the fourth quarter thanks to James Caruso, Nico Panepinto and Mike Panepinto.

In the second half, Westford Academy’s pressure on Needham’s offense and defense continued, as they tied the game in the third quarter at 6:48 when Drapeau beat Lucas Davis for his third goal of the game.

Afterward, the Rockets' offense finally came to life, as junior All-American Mark Riley scored his first of four goals, while James Caruso won five face-offs in a row that sparked Needham’s attack and midfielders to score nine more goals and secure the win.  

“That was a big goal, but right after that goal, James Caruso, our face-off guy, started winning [face-offs],” Riley said. “We got three in a row and that really changed the momentum of the game.”

“Every single one of our guys made a mistake, and they all accepted their responsibility for it. And then the second half, they stepped it up to the next level and the result was what you saw on the scoreboard,” Wainwright said.

Westford Academy added one more goal during the fourth quarter, but by then, Needham had solidified the win.

“We had a great game from our goaltender, Peter Hargrave; he was tremendous throughout the game, but he really kept us in for those two-and-a-half [quarters],” Westford head coach Gus Bickford said. “When we did have it, we either capitalized or made mistakes, and what we need to do better is become more mature at carrying the ball on offense and figuring out how to capitalize when we have an offense and not push it when we don’t.”

Needham finished the game with 60 ground balls and 53 shots on net, as well as won a majority of the face-offs. The Rockets will look to continue their tournament quest on Wednesday, when they travel to Topsfield to take on Masconomet; face-off is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.     

“Masconomet is a good, talented team,” Wainwright said. “They've got good sticks and they've got good athletes. They got two All-Americans from the midfield that play from up top; they make a lot of things happen that way, and I think they’re going to be challenging us in some areas that we haven’t quite seen this year.”