Short of last year's state title, Norwell boys lax stays present in quest for redemption

Norwell High boys lacrosse coach Josh Stolp knows staying in the present will do his team good in the state tournament.

But there's no doubt the haunting heartbreak of the Clippers' 10-4 loss to Dover-Sherborne in last year's Division 3 title game is fueling this season's pursuit of redemption.

No. 2 Norwell will host either No. 31 Bedford or No. 34 Auburn in a Division 3 Round of 32 game on Thursday.

“You can’t just take a state championship loss and just leave it there," " junior FOGO John Mullen said. "You’ve got to get motivated and try to get better from that."

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There's a razor-thin margin for error to improve on a season in which Norwell finished undefeated against Division 3 opponents with a 16-4 overall record and the first South Sectional title in program history. What followed this spring was a 16-2 regular season, another clean slate against Div. 3 foes and an eight-game streak of lopsided wins heading into the tournament.

The Clippers have long-awaited another title tilt this time of year.

“I think that’s definitely something that’s in the back of their heads the whole way," Stolp said, "but they also know if they start thinking about that, they may not get there at all.”

Dover-Sherborn, which moved to Division 4 this year, brought the defensive heat in last year's title game. The Clippers suffered a 34-minute scoring dry spell, despite having favorable odds for possession at the X thanks to Mullen, who won 83 percent of his face-offs in an All-American-caliber season as a sophomore.

Reflecting on the game ahead of this year's tournament, Mullen praised the opponent for doing their film work because the Clippers "couldn’t do anything."

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“That definitely stung a little bit," said leading scorer Griffin Vetrano. "We kind of got ran out of the water, but we just want to win. We’re going to do whatever it takes.”

“(The loss) was a huge factor for them in keeping the focus all year long because they know how good they can be, but also how good you have to be to win the whole thing,” Stolp added. “They just had a bad moment at that time. That team was better than us so they’ve just really been focused on getting better, keeping the foot on the pedal the whole time.”

Perhaps that orchestrated Norwell to tighten up its own defensive strings, led by the excellence of Ryan Daly in net and the unit's "cornerstone", according to Stolp, in defenseman Jack Coyle.

The Clippers have allowed a double-digit goal total in just two games this year: at Marshfield on April 19 (10) and at Franklin on April 26 (13) - the team's only two losses all season. And each came by just a one-score margin. With authority, Daly has snapped a lid on the opponent's net.

“He’s been huge. His reaction time is insane. He reads the ball really well, reads the shots well. He's great in tight, he's also great from the outside. Really his big thing this year was his clearing game," Stolp praised Daly. "Our success a lot of the time is because of him picking up the right read out there."

Daly said that he is on track for 200 saves this season, and he aims to keep opposing attackers under 10 goals per game.

“Setting goals like that, I think, has really pushed myself in games, keeping the drive going," Daly said.

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"He's so important. When you have a really good goalie -- I mean, he stops all the balls and that's how you score. So, it's amazing. When he's on fire, he's crazy," Mullen said. "We all revolve around him."

Sophomore attack Ryan Shea has complemented Vetrano nicely in the goal-scoring department. Vetrano, a senior coming off an All-Scholastic season of 53 goals and 35 assists (88 points), has returned as just as much of a threat to defenses. Norwell has scored 13 goals or more in nine of its games this year, all wins.

That noted, is there a target on the backs of the high-seeded Clippers?

"Yeah, I'd think so," Mullen said.

"A lot people know we're doing really well in D3 and stuff, the MaxPreps rankings will go up but those are rankings. Rankings don't really mean anything," Mullen added. "You've just got to put that aside and we've just got to keep playing really good. We can't worry about a target or anything, we just have to keep being us."

After a regular season in which dominance was displayed on an everyday basis, Norwell's seeding reflected it. Now, it's officially tournament time (the pairings were set to be announced on Saturday) and a title would be the ultimate prize for a team that so desperately covets it to complete its chase-down of redemption. It would be the program's first.

But don't go looking ahead too far.

“I think we learned early on that if we mail it in and don't show up, what happens. It can be very disappointing," Stolp said. "We know we have to, every day, focus on the game ahead and not get ahead of ourselves in thinking about the future too much.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Norwell boys lacrosse ready to roll in tournament