Back-to-back: Dover-Sherborn girls lacrosse tops Manchester-Essex to win second straight state title

WELLESLEY — As the clock began to wind down Tuesday night, fans behind the Dover-Sherborn girls lacrosse team's bench at Babson College's MacDowell Field began chanting "Back-to-back! Back-to-back!"

The third-seeded Raiders were on the verge of winning their second straight state title with a 10-7 victory over top-seeded Manchester-Essex.

"It's incredible," senior Rylie McLaughlin said. "It's actually an unexplainable feeling."

"It doesn't feel real," added junior Mia Guarini.

After winning last season's Division 2 state championship, 12-10 over Bromfield, D-S lost seven seniors to graduation.

"I think a lot of people didn't expect much from Dover-Sherborn (this year)," Raiders coach Erin Massimi said. "We had graduated a lot of seniors, so we knew from the beginning, it was going to be a lot of hard work.

"We were just excited for that fresh start," Massimi added. "We were excited to build something and from the get-go our seniors and upper classmen as a whole just took it on... We are so proud of them."

Trailing 2-1 about two-thirds of the way through the first half, D-S went on a 5-0 scoring run to take a 6-2 lead. That run was started by Guarini who scored three goals in nearly 100 seconds.

"I just knew that I've had a bunch of strong games recently and I have been figuring out my game during tournament," Guarini said. "I had to show up for my team and I just did what I've been doing. I knew that my teammates would set me up and that's what happened."

Once Guarini scored with 9:29 left to go in the first half, the Raiders never looked back and led the rest of the way.

"Mia, this entire tournament run, has just been our go-to girl," Massimi said. "She's been kind of waiting for that seat and to see her step into that role for this tournament, it just makes me so excited that she will be back for next year."

One player who won't be back next year is McLaughlin who finished her high school career recording four points with a hat trick on top of a second straight state championship.

"It feels like wrapping up a really amazing end of a career," McLaughlin said. "I'm happy with the ending. I couldn't have asked for anything better."

The Raiders led by as many as five with 18:40 left to go after McLaughlin's third goal of the game made it 9-4 in favor of Dover-Sherborn, but the Hornets never gave up.

A 3-0 run by Manchester-Essex cut the D-S lead to just two with 11:45 left to play at 9-7 when Massimi called a timeout to regroup her team.

"I told them to 'Go back to what we know'," Massimi said. "'What we know is trusting each other and not second-guessing what our instincts are because your instincts is what brought us here.'

"I think the defense just needed a little reset to collect themselves."

Sophomore Avery O'Connell then scored with 8:09 left to make it 10-7 and end the Hornets' scoring run.

So what has been the identity of this championship team?

"Everyone has had to step up into different roles," Guarini said. "We just got better as the games went on. Our schedule made us work harder and practice was the best part to make us better."

With the Raiders' win, not only does Dover-Sherborn win its second straight state title, but a team from the Tri-Valley League has won three of the four state championships in girls lacrosse.

Medfield won the Division 3 state title, 11-9 over Cohasset and Westwood routed Wellesley, 16-2, for the Division 1 state title.

"It just goes to show how amazing our league is," Massimi said. "We are very lucky to play so many competitive league games and the reason why our defense, our goalie and our ride is so good is because of playing those games in our league.

"It's an excellent league and we are really lucky to be a part of that."

Ethan Winter is a senior multimedia sports journalist at the Daily News. He can be reached at ewinter@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @EWints.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Dover-Sherborn girls lacrosse wins second straight state championship