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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Two of the Bay State Conference’s premiere lacrosse programs took to the field last Tuesday afternoon in some beautiful weather as the third-placed Wellesley Raiders (10-5) and conference-leading Needham Rockets (14-2, No. 6 in the state) wrote the next chapter in their storied and heated rivalry. Led by Jason Child (four goals, two assists) Danny McEvoy (three goals, five assists), and Antonio Trabucco (three goals, two assists), the Rockets were able to pull away from the Raiders thanks in large part to a strong 7-0 run in the third quarter, prevailing by a final of 14-5.
The Rockets drew first blood less than three minutes in with a goal from Danny McEvoy on a left-handed rip. Just over 45 seconds later, Joe Bruno took a pass from John Andre from behind the cage, cut to the left on his off hand, and fired a left-handed bouncer off-stick side of Wellesley net minder Teddy Darcey to make it a 2-0 Needham lead.
Wellesley would respond, however, as just after a timeout following the second Needham goal, Hugh Callahan got the Raiders on the board by cutting to the cage from the right side, diving and sneaking a shot through the legs of Needham goaltender Austin Shanks to make it a single-goal deficit at 2-1. After Needham was called for a slash infraction, Amherst College commit Grant Chryssicas fired home an absolute cannon on the man-up to knot the game at two with 2:36 to play in the first. A minute and 30 seconds later at 1:06 remaining in the quarter, McEvoy struck again with a strong drive to the cage, fake, and dunk over the shoulder of Darcey to give Needham back the lead at 3-2 at the end of one.
Two minutes into the second quarter, Wellesley was able to tie the game back up at three, thanks to William Manning’s rip from 10 yards out. On Needham’s ensuing possession, three massive saves by Teddy Darcey (one with stick, one with right leg, one with chest) kept the game tied at three. However, Antonio Trabucco was finally able to crack the Penn State commit with a bounce shot from eight yards away, putting Needham up 4-3. Less than a minute later, Trabucco struck again as he dodged, drove to the cage, and tucked it five-hole on Darcey to give Needham a two-goal edge at 5-3. With 4:22 to play in the half, Danny McEvoy sprinted out from behind the cage and made a swift pass to a cutting Jason Child. The Boston University commit Child dodged past a Wellesley defender and fired home a shot to put Needham ahead 6-3. James Mastrianni put an end to the three-goal run by Needham with 2:44 to play in the half by cutting to the cage and tucking a shot through the legs of Shaver to make it a 6-4 game. Trabucco responded quickly, however, dodging from the right side of the net and firing a shot that deflected off the right leg of Darcey and trickled across the line to give the senior his third tally of the quarter, but more importantly, extended Needham’s lead at the half to 7-4.
Following halftime, the Rockets made some adjustments to their face-off scheme, and it paid off with tremendous success for senior captain and Endicott football commit Joe Bruno, who won six consecutive draws to begin the third quarter. Because of Bruno’s excellence on draws, the Rockets were able to maintain the majority of possessions in the third quarter, and it resulted in a 7-0 run with three goals coming off the stick of Child on similar crank shots from the right side, one from senior captain and UMass commit Sam Eisenstadt, who drove up the field and fired a bounce shot, one from sophomore midfielder Alex Berney on a left-handed rip from 12 yards out, one from senior midfielder Eric O’Brien, and another from McEvoy. Following the offensive explosion in the third quarter, the Rockets entered the final frame with a commanding 14-4 lead.
Chris Aitken cut it to a 14-5 game in the first minute of the fourth quarter, but that would be the last goal of the afternoon as the Rockets played shutdown defense throughout the remainder of the quarter and prevailed with the nine-goal victory. At the time of print, the Rockets will look to keep to their winning ways in a key late-season non-conference showdown against the No. 13 team in Massachusetts, Acton-Boxborough, on Thursday, a game that should weigh in heavily to the Rockets’ state tournament seeding.
Wellesley, meanwhile, will try and get back on a winning not when they face off against Lexington on Wednesday before getting after it in the state tournament.
