Senior goalie Standish Carothers (21) is mobbed by teammates following Dover-Sherborn boys lacrosse's 10-4 Division III state final win against Norwell on Thursday at Nora Searle Field. Photo by Mike Flanagan.
By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
A year removed from the last MIAA lacrosse championships, and its safe to say Division III boys lacrosse still runs through Dover-Sherborn.
Despite an excellent afternoon at the face-off X by Johnny Mullen (13-of-17), as well as a stellar performance in cage by Ryan Daly (14 saves), the Raiders proved to be much for Norwell. Behind a four-goal performance by Brad Peterson, DS captured their second consecutive Division III state championship and their sixth in the past decade on Thursday afternoon in Dover.
“It’s surreal,” said senior captain and Bryant-bound attack-man Pierce Gregory (two goals, one assist) on the win. “At the beginning of this year, we didn’t even know if we were going to have a season, postseason or anything. To make it this far with this group of guys, it just doesn’t feel real being at home and winning a championship in front of our friends, family and classmates. It’s awesome.”
Peterson and Mac Maiellano exchanged early goals before a back-to-back by Gregory and senior captain and midfielder Ford Pegram gave the Raiders a 3-1 lead. Griffin Vetrano brought Norwell back to within one late in the first quarter with a goal off a rebound, but Pegram answered almost immediately with a snipe up high on the run to make it 4-2 DS after one.
Pegram’s goal at the tail end of the first sparked a 3-0 run by DS to finish the half. Peterson cranked home a goal on the man-up off a feed from Gregory at X, followed by a lefty worm-burner by senior attack-man Ben Teich off a feed from Pegram to make it 6-2 Raiders at halftime.
Unlike the first time these two teams met on May 6, an 11-7 win for Norwell, Dover-Sherborn’s defense was absolutely dominant on Thursday. Following Norwell’s second goal of the game by Vetrano midway through the first, the Raiders held the Clippers scoreless until 6:46 to play in regulation. During that span, Teich, Gregory and Peterson (twice) all found pay-dirt to put DS ahead comfortably at 9-2. Back-to-back goals by Vetrano and Brian Black got Norwell to within five with 4:37 remaining, but Peterson’s fourth with just over three minutes to play sealed it.
“We were able to get on their hands,” said DS head coach Brian McLaughlin on the play of his defensive unit. “They have such great feeders and we knew we had to stay on their hands and not allow their guys to make easy feeds because they are deadly when they do. I’m happy for the kids. They worked really hard for this one.”
Senior captain and Muhlenberg-bound close D man Luke Wiese said that Dover-Sherborn’s growth as a team throughout the season, as well as their willingness to do all of the little things, were instrumental in the Raiders winning their way back atop Division III.
“Just from watching a lot of the film, we knew they got a lot of their goals [in the first meeting] from cuts and some miscommunication from us,” said Weise. “We focused on forcing the cutters down low and staying on their hands. I thought our face-off guys and defensive mids today were awesome. We might not have won a huge number of face-offs but I thought the willingness those guys showed to force the ball on the ground and win ground-ball battles really helped us.”
For funny and incisive sports analysis as well as video highlights of games, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter and Instagram handles @flano0
