Finding the right balance of offense and defense, the Weston High School boys lacrosse team clinched its first ever state championship defeating Dover-Sherborn, 5-4, in the East Div. 3 final at Harvard Stadium.
“We believed in ourselves,” said Wildcats head coach Jim Wilcon. “We believed we were good enough to be here and good enough to win the game. We weren’t going to be satisfied just to get here, even though it was our first time.”
The Wildcats (20-2), who led throughout the contest, were provided their offensive output from Joey Pasquale. The junior displayed an unquenchable thirst to score netting four goals and also adding an assist.
“I’m glad we don’t have to defend against him,” said Wilcon. “I don’t know how to stop him. He’s done a tremendous job with the ball, off the ball. He went over the 100-point mark today.”
The Raiders (19-3) were pushed back on their heels from the start. Wildcat Robert Crockett won the opening faceoff, relayed the ball to Pasquale, who passed to Kyle Nickerson. The senior beat goalie Jeff Williams and Weston had the 1-0 lead just six seconds into the contest.
Pasquale then doubled the Wildcats advantage when he scored unassisted at the 8:07 mark of the second quarter.
Roughly three minutes later, Raider Brandon Jaeger faked out his defender and delivered a point-blank shot on net, but Wildcat netminder Jared Fong turned away the ball. On the same possession, Dover-Sherborn appeared to cut the lead in half as PJ Copponi found the back of the net, but it was waived off because of a crease violation.
Dover-Sherborn finally tallied its first goal of the game at 3:25 with Ben Newbert scoring on a pass from Jared Spence. But Pasquale made sure the Wildcats would go into halftime with the two-goal advantage as he bolted around the net and then did a 180-degree turn to score.
The two teams traded goals in the third quarter before Fong committed solid back-to-back saves. The first came as Chad Huemme rifled a low shot on net and Fong quickly dropped to his knees to net the ball.
“We’re pretty proud of Jared,” said Wilcon. “He’s a great goalie. He seems to play bigger in big games. And we’re glad he is around for another year.”
Minutes into the fourth quarter, Pasquale netted his fourth goal from Matthew Knight to give the Wildcats the 5-3 advantage. That proved to be the difference maker as the Raiders netted a tally with 10 seconds remaining on a strike from Huemme.