Boys’ lax team opens season with 2 big wins

Senior Casey Dwyer had a big assist in last week’s thrilling season opener. (Mike Barucci photo)

Coming off a historic and memorable 2013 campaign that ended in the Division 3 state semifinals, the CHS boys’ lacrosse team returned to the turf last week with several new starters and high hopes for another successful season.

And already the Bulldogs have two impressive wins under their belts, including a thrilling comeback against Mansfield last Wednesday and a 12-0 blowout against Attleboro earlier this week.

To be fair, the squad has also produced one clunker — a 16-4 home loss to nonleague Norwell that even surprised head coach Bill Bendell. However, on the whole, Bendell has been pleased with the early returns.

“Last year, we knew what we had,” said the veteran coach. “This year we’re still figuring it out. We got smoked against Norwell, but we’re young. I think the [division winner] is going to be based on who improves the most over the course of the season.”

In last week’s opener against Mansfield, the Bulldogs fell behind early and trailed 4-0 at the half, but they stormed back to win it 6-5 on a last-second goal by junior attackman Tommy Galvin.

“We played a terrible first half, Mansfield played great, and we still came back and beat them,” Bendell said afterwards.

Sophomore Ben O’Neill paced the offense with two goals and one assist, while senior Casey Dwyer had a goal and also assisted on Galvin’s game-winner. Juniors Shayne Walsh and Paul Swart both added one goal apiece.

Senior goalie and co-captain Ben Lodge also had a strong 2014 debut, tallying seven first-half saves to help keep the game within reach.

Two days later, the squad welcomed Norwell to town, and after a promising start, the senior-laden visitors took complete control of the game.

“We were in it for a few minutes and then the wheels fell off,” said Bendell. “It was Norwell’s fourth game of the season and they were like a well-oiled machine.”

Despite the loss, Bendell thought his own seniors set a great example for the younger players by playing hard all game — especially co-captain Matt Bagley, who crashed into the scorer’s table chasing down a ground ball even when the game was out of reach.

Refusing to get too down on themselves after the Norwell loss, the Bulldogs returned to action on Monday and throttled Attleboro behind big games from Galvin (3 goals, 3 assists), O’Neill (3 goals, 2 assists), and Swart (2 goals, 2 assists).

The defense, which Bendell identified as the team’s strength this season, also had a strong performance behind seniors Bagley and Quinn Merrigan and juniors Matt McHugh and Tyler Murphy.

The Bulldogs (2-1) were due to play two more this week: home against Sharon on Wednesday and at Scituate on Saturday. The team will then host Oliver Ames on Monday, April 14, beginning at 3:15 p.m.

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