Tanners Lacrosse Earns Critical Win Over Wilmington

Ken Blaszka will be on the sidelines for the Woburn High School boys lacrosse team. But for the last week of the season, he knows there’s not much coaching he has left to do.

“At this point we aren’t putting anything new in the game plan. It’s take it to the cooker, score, and stop them,” said Blaszka, whose team needs two victories in its final four regular season contests to earn a playoff berth. “There’s no coaching at this point. It’s just who wants it. Hopefully we want it and we’ll make the tournament.”

Woburn improved its playoff chances on Thursday when it took a lead into halftime and dominated the time of possession in the final two periods for a 10-6 victory. It was just Wilmington’s third loss of the season, while the victory improved the Tanners to 7-7 on the campaign.

Chris Claflin led the attack against Wilmington with five goals while Shawn Connolly had three markers and Chris Morgan added two scores of his own.

Next up for Woburn is a bizarre Saturday game. The contest versus Arlington begins at 9 a.m., and starts in the fifth overtime. The two teams are continuing a game from last week that was deadlocked at 5-5 before lightning caused it to be halted.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like that,” said Blaszka. “It was nuts. One goal wins the game, so we have to put it away and make it happen.”

Following the conclusion of Saturday’s marathon game, the Tanners will have three games to go in the next week as they hope to extend their season.

Blaszka said his team is solid defensively, and has progressed on offense the deeper into the season it’s gotten. The Woburn mentor said he believes that if the Tanners make the playoffs, they’ll be a difficult out.

“We’re a good team from top to bottom. We play well, we play hard. You’ll know you’re playing us,” said Blaszka. “The kids know what I want. The key is having students of the game. And that’s what we have.”