Spaulding and Sullivan (plus freshmen) put on show as Scituate lax sweeps tourney openers
SCITUATE — Tuesday was a good day to be a fan of Scituate High lacrosse.
Mainly because a couple of Sailors had great days.
The boys and girls lacrosse teams swept a pair of Division 2 Round of 32 games to open play in the MIAA tournament. In the girls' 19-13 win over Falmouth, junior captain Charlotte Spaulding went berserk and tallied 11 goals and 3 assists.
“I think it was a good game,” said Spaulding sheepishly after the game. "I tried my best and I think I did pretty good."
In the boys win, an 18-3 triumph over Whitman-Hanson, sophomore James Sullivan scored six goals in the first half. His tally might have been higher had he not spent a handful of minutes in the sin bin in the first half and if the Sailors didn’t boast a 15-2 lead at halftime.
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“(Before the game) James Sullivan was (thinking) ’14 points?’ And I go, ‘You’re not going to get to 14 points bud, I’m sorry,’” said Scituate boys coach Mark Puzzangara.
Freshman Will Robinson also had a big day with four goals and three assists and senior captain Quinn Gannon was nearly flawless at the X.
“It’s a great day for Scituate lacrosse all around,” said Puzzangara.
Both teams will play the waiting game to see who their next opponent is.
The No. 9 girls will match up with the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 25 Ursuline and No. 8 Masconomet.
The No. 4 boys will host the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 20 North Middlesex and No. 13 Westwood (date, time TBD).
Comeback kids
A final score with 19 tallies and a six-goal cushion doesn’t sound like a comeback, but the Scituate girls had to dig out of an early hole.
Falmouth came out fast and jumped out to a 5-1 lead just over eight minutes into play. Following the first of 11 tallies from Spaulding, a goal from Colleen Caswell put the upset-minded Clippers up 6-2 10 minutes into play.
But the Sailors responded with four goals in a three-minute stretch and went on a 12-3 run to take a 14-9 lead in the second half.
More: Different styles, similar results: Scituate, Marshfield girls lacrosse teams on an upswing
“What’s their fight?,” said Scituate girls coach Ross Maki. “Do they roll up their sleeves and dig their heels in or do they let complacency take over? They didn’t let that happen for a second.
“I had no doubt that these guys would be able to step up and certainly rise to the occasion.”
Bouncing back from a slow start is something the young Sailors, who boast as many freshmen (two) as seniors, have experience with. Scituate was 4-4 following a loss to Weymouth on May 2. The Sailors responded by winning 9 of their next 11 games.
“I knew that we could come back,” said Spaulding of the early deficit. “We were all nervous, we were playing really sloppy. It was like how we played at the beginning of the season.
“We started playing like we had been in recent games and then once we started scoring a few goals, the momentum kept going.”
Getting momentum back on Scituate’s side is easier when the newly minted Patriot League Fisher Division MVP is on your side. Spaulding was simply stellar at every moment her team needed her.
In the second half, Falmouth scored three consecutive goals to cut its deficit to 14-12. Spaulding answered by shepherding five consecutive Sailor points with four goals and an assist on freshman Kate Tarsala’s second goal of the day.
“Coming into this season, we graduated Sarah Irish (176 career goals), who was a phenomenal player here for four years and there was a big question mark,” said Maki. “Is it even possible to fill those shoes? Charlotte, her feet are growing and she’s really fitting into those shoes.
“She’s done it for us all season as far as being our foundation offensively and she’s gotten players better around her, that’s the true meaning of a captain and a leader.”
“I wanted to make it just as far this year (after a trip to the 2021 sectional semifinals), so I knew I had to step up,” said Spaulding. “I’m one of the oldest on the team right now.”
After struggling on the draw early in the game, Spaulding made some adjustments. Tarsala and freshman Kate Stone (3 goals) also had more success winning 50-50 balls as the game progressed.
“It’s a huge ask of them to come up with the minutes they play and then come up with draw controls the way they did today,” said Maki of the freshmen, “but they’ve done it for us all season and it was good to see them break out of that freshmen first tournament game experience and really kind of shine today.”
“They’ve definitely improved a lot and obviously at the beginning of the season they’re not going to be as comfortable,” said Spaulding. “They’re playing against girls three years older than them, it’s really hard. I never played as a freshman (2020 spring was cancelled), so I don’t know how it is, but they’ve adjusted and they’ve done incredible. They step up when they need to step up.”
Junior Tess Railton tallied a pair of goals in the win, one of which came off an assist from sophomore Beth MacCune.
In the loss, junior Natalie Bosselman and Caswell scored 4 goals while senior goaltender Charlotte Davis stopped 15 shots. Freshman Jordan DiPietro added a pair of goals and an assist. Senior captain Anna Fernandez (assist) and senior Samantha McKenzie each scored once.
Sailors roll
In the nightcap, the Scituate boys dominated. W-H’s Connor McCarthy tied the game at 1-1 with 7:04 remaining in the first quarter, but the Sailors responded by scoring 17 of the next 18 goals. The Panthers lone goal came during that stretch came when Bobby Hunter fired a shot from his own defensive zone with Scituate’s goaltender marking an attackman.
The Sailors are hoping this is the start of another deep tournament run after reaching the state semifinals last year.
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“It’s pretty close,” said Puzzangara when asked if it’s his team has state-title-or-bust mentality. “We feel we’ve got a good team here. We know it’s going to be a difficult road, but we’ve got a lot of pieces. Once again it’s the youth and a little bit of inexperience that we’re dealing with, but hopefully we can make up for that with our skill and how we play.”
Scituate’s young guns were on full display in the win. One of Sullivan’s six tallies was the 100th goal of his career.
“His improvement from last year to this year has been tremendous,” said Puzzangara. “He’s a special player, no question about it.”
Robinson and Quinn DeCourcey (goal, two assists) are both freshmen starters.
“We knew Willy Robinson was going to be a good player, but he’s really taken his game to the next level,” said Puzzangara. “Quinn DeCourcey has just battled all year long. Those guys just have a motor that doesn’t stop. They’ve got a high skill set and they’re smart.
“We haven’t seen kids like that in awhile. Usually it takes a year or so to get that (confidence), but those guys walked in and they were walking pretty high when they first came in. That’s a sign that they have a lot of confidence in their ability, which is great, and I know the team has a lot of confidence in them to get the job done.”
Gannon had a stellar day on faceoffs.
"One of the best face-off guys in Eastern Mass,” said Puzzangara. "We know we’re going to get a lot of possessions with him. It’s just such an asset to have going into the postseason. You know you’re going to be getting a lot more possessions than the other team and the way our offense can score goals, it just puts an added pressure on the other team.”
Sophomore long-stick midfielder Alex Burrill even joined the offensive onslaught with a goal and an assist.
"We’re a little bit more conservative with our poles when we push transition but he wants to go and when he has the green light, he can get it,” said Puzzangara of Burrill. “He’s got a great stick, super athletic, he’s got speed, he can go and he can dodge by guys. Whenever we can get those types of goals from our defense that’s just a plus for us.”
Sophomore midfielder Charlie Hartwell tallied a hat trick and added an assist in the win. Joe Cahill, Owen Hofford and Alex Deveraux all had solo tallies.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Scituate High lacrosse teams roll in MIAA tournament round of 32
