By Max Clifford
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Medfield Varsity Boys Lacrosse traded goals with Xaverian Brothers early on Friday night, but the Hawks overwhelmed on both sides of the ball in the second and third quarters to secure a 19-7 victory on their home field.
Though Xaverian held possession throughout much of the first quarter, they struggled to put the ball in the net. Medfield goalie Chase Coughlin kept a clean sheet for nearly 10 minutes to start the game.
The Warriors offense supported their goalie’s efforts, opening the scoring with just under seven minutes to play courtesy of a Kevin Arthur goal from point blank range. Carter DePiero added a goal of his own from 10 yards out to stretch the lead to 2-0.
A caused turnover by Xaverian’s Brendan Owens led to a scoring opportunity for the Hawks.
Todd Kobeleski beat the Medfield defense to put Xaverian on the board with just over two minutes to play.
With 40 seconds on the clock, Matthew George took a pass from Arthur and found the back of the net to push the Medfield lead back to two, 3-1.
The late burst of offense from the two teams was punctuated by a Dante Mariani goal that brought the Hawks back within one with less than seven seconds left to play.
The Medfield advantage would not survive more than thirty seconds of the second quarter as Mariani found the back of the net for the second time to even the score at 3-3. Two minutes later, Jonathan Black netted his first goal of the day to give Xaverian its first lead. Mariana would complete his hat trick with just over eight minutes to play in the quarter, pushing the lead to 5-3.
Mariani and Black would each finish the day with a game-best four goals.
Medfield’s Braeden Sutton provided the response shortly thereafter, ripping his first goal from 10 yards out to pull the Warriors within one, 5-4.
A minute later, William Cardini found the back of the net for his first goal of the day. This score sparked a 7-0 Xaverian run that did not see an answer from Medfield until the final seconds of the half.
Holding a comfortable 12-5 lead out of the break, Xaverian took care of business in the second half, winning by a final score of 19-7 to improve their record on the season to 8-6. The Hawks will play their final game of the regular season at home against Catholic Memorial on Tuesday, May 23.
Medfield’s loss drops them to 10-5 on the season. They will play two more regular season games, both on the road, against Holliston on Wednesday, May 24 and against Westwood on Friday, May 26.
