By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Staff
Last Friday, the boys’ lacrosse team played their final game of the regular season on the road against the Walpole Timberwolves. Before the matchup, the Wolverines had the 10th seed in D2 while Walpole had the 9th and beat them just 10–9 last season.
The Timberwolves scored first, but the Wolverines made two goals at the very end of the first quarter: the first by Captain Sam Cochran with 19 seconds left, and the second by Will Stuehler, assisted by Brett Baima with only 3 seconds remaining.
Will Sesselman scored only 33 seconds into the second quarter, assisted by Stuehler. Down 3–1, the Timberwolves then went on a four-goal streak, before CJ Hancock closed out the half with his goal.
Walpole opened the third quarter with another goal, and Greg Walsh responded to make it 6–5. However, the Timberwolves were able to score three more goals before the end of the quarter.
Entering the fourth quarter now down 9–5, things weren’t looking good for the Wolverines, but they had a great last quarter. Westwood’s goalie Captain Jaden Pollack fended off a few shots and Sesselman ran by a Walpole defender and made a successful shot. After a second goal a little under two minutes later, Westwood players and fans started getting excited. Under a minute later, Sesselman whipped a shot from far out and scored, bringing them up to a one-goal deficit, down 9–8.
During the last five minutes of the game, Pollack made two critical saves to keep the Wolverines within striking distance, and they kept the Timberwolves from scoring at all in the fourth quarter. However, they were
not able to get the final goal they needed in time, and they were defeated 9–8.
Last year, Westwood was the 10th seed in the playoffs and made it to the semifinals, where they lost to Reading Memorial just 10–9. Reading was the 6th seed and fell to Billerica Memorial in the finals. This year Reading is currently sitting at the 4th seed going into their final regular season game. At the time this article was written, the final rankings have not yet been published for boys’ lacrosse, but the Wolverines should still be in a good position going into the postseason despite the loss to Walpole. Even if they move down from 10th, they’re ending the season with a strong 15–3 record.
Wolverines’ schedules can be accessed online at: arbiterlive.com and power rankings and brackets can be found at miaa.net/game-day/tournament-central.
