Wright's seven goals power Ipswich past Blackstone Valley in tourney opener
Jun. 10—IPSWICH — It had been almost two full weeks since the Ipswich boys lacrosse team had played a game by the time they took the field for their Division 4 playoff opener Thursday against Blackstone Valley.
Veteran head coach Glenn Foster figured that his team was bound to be a bit rusty, especially on a balmy day at Jack Welch Stadium, but the Tigers shook it off quickly out of the gates en route to an early lead.
The hosts scored the game's first three goals, and seemingly every time Blackstone Valley threatened to close the gap they answered with another quick strike. The end result was a 16-9 triumph.
Junior captain Henry Wright was back to his scoring ways in the win, putting home seven goals to lead the Ipswich offensive onslaught.
"So far this season we've had a lot of games where we don't show up in the first half, first quarter," said Wright, who added two assists on the day. He led the Tigers in both goals (48) and total points (64).
The win pushed Ipswich's record to 9-8. Now, the 12th seeded Tigers will meet No. 5 Dover-Sherborn (11-8) in a second round playoff clash Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
"We're usually a fourth quarter team, and we wanted to change that," Wright added. "I thought we did that today; we still had a lot of mistakes, myself included, but we showed up all four quarters and kept a lead."
Both Wright and teammate Eliot Donovan (6 goals) scored to open things up before Will Harrington (goal, assist) followed suit to make it 3-0 in a hurry. After Blackstone Valley got on the board, Wright responded on a feed from Donovan and the Tigers' held a 4-2 lead after one.
In the second quarter, Blackstone found a bit of groove to cut its deficit to just two (7-5) down the stretch, but Wright once again ripped the twine in the final seconds for some extra cushion heading into intermission.
"Because of where (Blackstone Valley) is from, we hadn't had any clue as to what they had," admitted Foster. "We were able to get a couple of names and numbers, but that's it. So then of course at the beginning of the game it was like, 'Have they not scouted us, too?' And obviously if they didn't scout us, you'd find out very quickly who Henry is. Henry kind of sets the tone for us, and he did that today.
Led by some tremendous faceoff work from David Lonergan, the Tigers' continued to build separation after the break. On multiple occasions, Blackstone Valley (13-7) would score to inch a bit closer, only to see Lonergan win a faceoff, get the ball into the attacking zone quickly, and allow his teammates to execute and score.
Ipswich's lead ballooned to 11-6 after three quarters (they got a tremendous last second save from goalie Ryan Orroth to close out the frame), and carried that momentum into the final 12 minutes of action.
Wright (twice), Lonergan, Donovan and Jayson Clapp all scored in the final stanza for the hosts, including three straight in the final minutes to all but seal the deal.
Blackstone Valley got a couple of goals on deep slings through traffic, but the Tigers' defense held strong for the most part to keep the opponent at bay. Orroth finished with 10 saves while both Dexter Cayer and Peter Bauman stood out defensively.
Now it's on to Dover-Sherborn, a talented yet relatively unknown opponent for the Tigers. It should be one of their biggest challenges yet, and they'll have to be on their A-game if they want a chance to advance to the state quarterfinals.
"We have to clean up everything, from defense to offense," said Wright. "All the thrown away passes; everything. Because we're not going to be able to get away with that against Dover-Sherborn ... we just have to get back into it, but I think we'll be fine if we show up all four quarters like we did today."
Contact Nick Giannino at NGiannino@Salemnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGiannino_SN.
