Junior close D Henry Murphy (22) moves the ball up the field on a clear late in the second quarter. Photos by Mike Flanagan.
By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Sitting at 8-2 (6-2 TVL), the Medway Mustangs entered Monday night’s contest with perennial Division III powerhouse and first-place Dover-Sherborn (10-1, 8-0) still in the mix for the TVL Small title and in search of a statement win.
The last time these two rivals met was on May 10 - an 11-6 victory for the Raiders who were without senior goaltender Standish Carothers. On Monday, Carothers was back in net for DS, but this time around it was face-offs instead of goaltending that gave the Raiders the most difficulty.
Medway’s primary face-off man Samuel Theodore (13-of-23 face-offs) started the game hot as the senior’s early victories at the X kept the ball out of the hands of Dover-Sherborn’s lethal offense for a significant chunk of the first quarter. The Raiders were able to make do with limited possessions in the opening 12 minutes, thanks to a pair of goals by Ford Pegram and one from Ben Teich. Junior attack-man Sean Murphy countered with two goals for Medway in the opening quarter to make it a 3-2 game after one.
Once the second quarter began and adjustments were made at the face-off X, Dover-Sherborn’s offense got into rhythm and then some. Teich and Bryant-committed senior captain and attack-man Pierce Gregory each caught fire, recording three goals apiece in the second quarter to go along with strikes from Bradley Peterson, Michael Polk and Eli Kaplan. By halftime, DS had blown the game open from 3-2 to 12-4.
“Pierce [Gregory] and Ben [Teich] got by their guys and scored a couple goals in that second quarter, so that was nice to see,” said DS head coach Brian McLaughlin following the game. “Medway is a tough opponent and is very athletic. I thought we got out-ground-balled today so we got to clean up that.”
The 9-2 run throughout the second quarter proved to be the difference in the game. Pierce Gregory buried his fifth of the day on the man-up early in the third, thanks to an inside feed from Teich, to make it 13-4. Gregory went on to record his game-high fifth goal of the day with a beautiful backhanded shovel shot from the center of the box with 6:14 to play to deliver the dagger and make it a 17-8 game. Wyatt Pastore recorded his first career varsity goal to cap the day on offense for the Raiders, who prevailed by a final of 18-8.
Following the win, McLaughlin talked about his team need to improve at the face-off X as a big rematch looms on Saturday against Medfield with the TVL title on the line.
“The Medway face-off kid was awesome,” said McLaughlin on Samuel Theodore following the win. “We didn’t do a good job of getting the ball on the ground and Medfield’s face-off guy [TJ Casey] is awesome, so we have to work on that and see if we can cause some 50/50 ground balls and pick those up. If you lose that many possessions against Medfield, you could be in for a long night.”
For funny and incisive sports analysis as well as video highlights of games, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter and Instagram handles @flano0.
