Lax Lowdown: Tidying up some tidbits from across the North Shore lacrosse scene

May 26—With exactly a week to go in the regular season, it's a good time to take a few laps around the North Shore and check in with some notes and observations on each of our baker's dozen of squads. Let's go ... — Beverly hasn't had 11 regular season wins since the 2016 campaign, but has a chance to do so later today in its regular season finale against visiting Methuen (5:30 p.m.). Since dropping to 5-6 after an overtime loss to Peabody on May 2, the Panthers have won five of their last six contests heading into today's game with the Rangers and are clearly playing their best ball as the Division 2 postseason awaits.

"I would view that as something we'd be very proud of," acknowledged second-year head coach Matt Riordan.

That 2016 Beverly team won its first 18 games, finished the regular season 19-1 and went 21-2 overall. The following year the Panthers finished up 13-10 and won the Division 2 North crown, but that included 10 regular season victories and three more in the postseason. — Athleticism has played a big role in Masconomet's success this spring. The Chieftains have several multi-sport guys on their team whose overall skills lead them to making spectacular plays on the lacrosse field.

Andrew Saumsiegle is a perfect example. The senior attackman is not only one of the region's top playmakers with 23 assists, but he's also freakishly athletic, an attribute that sets him up for most of his looks. He recently had a pass sent his way that was far over his head, but Saumsiegle leaped up, snagged the ball in his stick with one hand, and basically dunked it into the net for a goal. Picture an alley-oop in basketball, and this was the lacrosse equivalent.

Teammate Aidan Gauvain is another. The senior soccer and basketball player hadn't played lacrosse in several years, but has double digit goals (16) for the Chieftains this spring because he's such a fluid athlete. — Ipswich has had its fair share of ups and downs over the last two months: a young, inexperienced team with only 17 varsity players is bound to stumble from time to time as they lack the speed and tendencies it takes to win at the varsity level.

But as Glenn Foster teams often have during his almost 40 years on the Tiger sidelines, they tend to play their best as the regular season draws to a close. That's happened again as Ipswich won its final three contests, including Wednesday night's 10-7 home triumph over Groton-Dunstable (the 9th ranked power ranked team in Division 3). Junior Henry Wright had five goals and classmate Ryan Orroth had nine huge saves in net as the hosts snapped a 6-6 tie with four third period tallies. As a result, they head into the playoffs with an 8-8 record and, being ranked inside the top 16 of Division 4, will get a first round home game for their efforts. — A strong St. John's Prep defense — one loaded with talents like Connor Kelly, Christian Rooney, Matt DiCara, long stick middies Nolan Philpott, Luca Winter and Andrew Klein, and goaltender Teddy Cullinane — now gets even stronger with the return of arguably its top pole, Tim Haarmann, from injury. The Boxford native, who'll continue to play at MIT starting in the fall, will loom large on the back end for the Eagles as they get set to defend their Division 1 state title next month.

Currently ranked No. 1 in the power rankings, St. John's (15-1 for MIAA playoff purposes) will have a pair of excellent road tests to finish up the regular season: Saturday at Hingham (noon) and next Thursday, June 2 at Billerica (6:30 p.m.). Both the Harbormen (Division 1) and Indians (Division 2) are ranked No. 3 in their respective divisions. — Swampscott's leading scorer, junior attack Jack Russo, hopes to be back for the playoffs after missing the final three games of the regular season due to a foot infection that required surgery. He's currently in a boot and has stitches between his pinky and second toe on his right foot, but is hoping to get the go ahead to play again following a doctor's appointment next Wednesday.

"I had noticed a large bump on my right pinky toe and had been playing with it all year. But when I woke up (two Saturdays ago), I couldn't walk and asked my mom to take me to the ER. I was there for three days," said Russo, whose 40 goals this season are fourth-most in SHS history behind Devin Conroy (55), Andrew Dove (49) and Kyle Fitzgerald (44). "Thankfully the doctors got it all cleaned up, so I'm really looking to getting back out there with the boys." — Does Essex Tech senior attack David Egan have a shot at breaking the North Shore's all-time single season scoring mark?

The record has stood for 20 years since Beverly High's Craig Boaman put up a ridiculous 145 points (59 goals, 86 assists). Boaman is also the North Shore's all-time career scoring leader with 381 points (197 goals, 184 assists).

Egan — who has run away with this year's scoring crown with 61 goals, 49 assists and 110 points through 17 games — and the Hawks have one regular season game remaining Friday against Shawsheen to determine the Commonwealth Athletic Conference champion. Then there is one (or potentially two) state vocational playoff games to be played, followed by the Division 3 postseason. Egan is averaging nearly 6 1/2 points per game, so with a long and sustained playoff run ... you just never know. — I like the way Jaxson Vogel plays defense for Danvers. With terrific size (6-foot-3 and about 185 lbs.) and strength, he's able to muscle attackmen and middies away from his net regularly. His quick feet are another added bonus; so is his improvement at picking up ground balls, which allow him to get the ball up to his teammates and help jump-start the Falcons' offense.

"He's got that combination of size, strength, quickness and just knowing the game," head coach Wes Chittick said of Vogel. "Jaxson has really developed some great instincts and become a much better communicator on defense." — Bishop Fenwick has one regular season game remaining, but the stakes couldn't be any bigger. The Crusaders, currently 8-9, need a win at Lynnfield next Wednesday (5:15 p.m.) to guarantee themselves a spot in the Division 3 playoffs. They are currently ranked No. 31 in the latest power rankings, and a loss to the Pioneers could knock them out of a top-32 spot, meaning automatic postseason entry would be gone.

Lynnfield is currently 13-4 and ranked No. 6 in the Division 4 polls. — Fenwick's crosstown rivals, Peabody High, will be in the Division 1 state playoffs despite currently sitting outside the top 32 in the power rankings. That's because the Tanners finished the regular season at 9-7, with marquee wins over Masconomet, Beverly (twice) and, in the Carlin Cup, Bishop Fenwick.

A very young team who has found goals hard to come by — sophomore Matt Bettencourt (26) and junior Nick Salvati (21) have netted almost half of the team's 103 total goals — Peabody has had success in large part because of its team defense. Goaltender Derek Patturelli has been stellar in net with 181 saves; in front of him, senior captain Scott Turner, junior Trotman Smith, and talented sophomore Johnny Lucas have proven to be defensive leaders. — Best faceoff guy I've seen this season? That's easy: Colin McLoy of Pingree. His otherworldly 24-for-26 success rate in Wednesday's season-ending 15-10 victory over Phillips Andover capped off a sublime season for the 5-foot-9, 175-pound junior, which saw him dominate at the faceoff X. He beats his foes in any number of ways: clamping, over the top, sheer physicality, bettering a long pole ... you name it and McLoy always finds a way to escape with the ball to earn possession for the Highlanders.

"It's an art. Not everyone can be a true FOGO," said Pingree head coach Kevin Tersolo. "But Colin works at his craft constantly throughout the year. That's why he's as good as he is." — John Wilkens has been talking to his Marblehead squad about the need for someone to step up offensively and help balance out the scoring. Teams tend to key on Josh Robertson (51 goals, 74 points), Connor Cronin (33 goals, 75 points) and other goal scorers such as Carter Laramie (28 goals), Charlie Grenier (33 goals) and Cole Gallup (21), so a teammate being able to step up and produce goals would be a huge plus.

Kai Bontaites was obviously listening. The senior attack scored three huge goals Wednesday night in a monster 14-10 home win over Division 1 Lexington. In almost doubling his scoring total for the year (he now has 7 goals to go with an assist), Bontaites was aggressive, shot low and with confidence — and was rewarded with three rips into the net, not to mention his team's biggest win of 2022. — Most North Shore goaltenders average around nine or 10 saves a game. Maher Kokonezis almost doubles that; the Salem High co-captain has made 284 saves in 16 games, an average of almost 18 per game. His 14 stops Tuesday against Swampscott officially game him the Witches' single season saves mark.

Kokonezis has had five games with at least 20 or more saves this spring, including 32 against Beverly and a pair of 24-save performances against Gloucester and Danvers, respectively. — Hamilton-Wenham has surrendered just 7.2 goals a game over 17 contests, one of the better goals-against marks in the area. But they're 4-13 on the year because they haven't been able to score with any regularity. The Generals have scored 42 goals in their four victories and a grand total of 62 in their 13 setbacks.

Despite their subpar record, the Generals will qualify for the Division 4 state playoffs based largely on strength of schedule (including a win over Division 1 Beverly). The most recent rankings had them 22nd in power seeding in the division.

Lax Lowdown, a boys lacrosse column, appears each Thursday in The Salem News during the spring season. Contact Executive Sports Editor Phil Stacey at PStacey@Salemnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @PhilStacey_SN.

Lax Lowdown, a boys lacrosse column, appears each Thursday in The Salem News during the spring season. Contact Executive Sports Editor Phil Stacey at PStacey@Salemnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @PhilStacey_SN.