Winchester Stops North Reading With Depth and Defense

WINCHESTER - Standing on Knowlton Field were two coaches, neither quite sure how their lacrosse teams would respond Thursday afternoon.

At one end was North Reading coach Chuck Campobasso, his Hornets 13-11 winners over Danvers in the first round of the MIAA Division 2 North tournament just 24 hours earlier. Without a deep roster, how would they respond to the quick turnaround?

A few steps away was Winchester coach John Pirani, whose Sachems hadn't played a game in more than a week, a time filled with graduation, senior prom, class night, and something he called the "luau." How long would it take for Winchester to respond to their first tournament game of the spring?

The answer came quickly as Winchester (15-3) took a 6-1 lead at the half and went on to beat North Reading, 14-8. The Sachems advance to Tuesday's Division 2 North semifinals to play the winner of Friday's Wakefield vs. Billerica game. North Reading finished the season 15-7.

"We sat for eight days, and that's just hard this time of year," said Pirani. "What was hard is that we didn't have an actual scheduled game until two days ago. They played a tough game [Wednesday] with Danvers so we didn't even know who the opponent was until the fourth quarter of that game. There were a lot of things going on."

Jake Mabardy got the Sachems off to a fast start, scoring the first goal at 8:52 of the opening quarter, and assisting on Charlie Ward's score at 6:14. North Reading's Mike Sheridan cut the margin to 2-1 after the first 12 minutes but the Sachems dominated the second frame with Mabardy again starting things. The junior, who missed the first seven games of the season with a knee injury, made it 3-1, then assisted on Ward's second goal. Grant Murray and Jack Carpini scored in the last two minutes of the half to make it 6-1 at the break.

But if Winchester thought game one of the tournament would be easy, North Reading sent an early reminder that it wasn't over yet. Sheridan scored at 11:29, followed less than a minute later by a goal from the Cape Ann League's Kinney Player of the Year Sean Fagen. It was now 6-3 and the Hornets had life.

Winchester got back on track and it started with a nice save by sophomore goalie Matt Suffredini on the Hornets' Jay Schille. The Sachems scored the next three goals, with Harry Carpini, Mabardy (4 goals, 2 assists), and Jack Carpini (4 goals) all connecting to make it 9-3. The six-goal margin held after three quarters (10-4) and for much of the fourth. Winchester stretched the lead to 13-5 with 6:23 to play and with the help of back-to-back timeouts at 2:01 and 1:34, held on for the win.

North Reading was led by the big three of Fagen (two goals and two assists), Kevin Murphy (three goals) and Mike Sheridan (three goals). For the year, Fagen finished with 69 goals and 80 assists, Murphy with 81 goals and 29 assists, and Sheridan at 75 goals, and 22 assists. Both Fagen and Sheridan will be back next year.

"They're obviously a well-established program, and they just have a little more depth, a little more skill in some areas," said Campobasso. "We have some really good players but we don't have the numbers we need. We're playing essentially 12 guys the entire game, and that can wear on you. Early on it was a little bit of an adjustment with how aggressive they were defensively, but after a while it becomes a numbers game and how can we match that for 48 minutes."

The quick turnaround didn't help. The game had been scheduled for Friday but North Reading graduates Friday and Winchester had a field conflict Saturday. Thus two games in two days.

"Playing back to back wasn't ideal but it is what it is. It happens," said Campobasso. "I'm proud of our guys. The record is the record, that's all fine. But it's a great group of guys and I'll take that over any win."

For Winchester and Pirani, the time before Tuesday will be spent trying to find the consistency and rhythm he felt the Sachems were missing against North Reading.

"I felt like we were searching for that a lot today," said Pirani. "But I have to give our kids a lot of credit. We went out and scored 14 goals against a pretty darn good team."

Photo by Bob Holmes