Boys’ lacrosse team gets 1st playoff win since 2005

After thoroughly outplaying Lynnfield last week for its first playoff victory in six seasons, the Canton High boys’ lacrosse team traveled to No. 2 Weston on Saturday with house money and turned in a respectable performance in an eventual 9-2 loss.

Although the defeat ended their season, the Bulldogs still have plenty to hang their hats on after collecting a program-best 12 wins and exercising plenty of demons along the way against the likes of Sharon and King Philip. The season also saw junior captain Matt Malloy emerge as a bona fide star, as he finished among the league leaders in goals and assists and earned a nod to the All-Hockomock team.

As good as he was all year, however, Malloy was otherworldly in the game against Lynnfield. Head coach Bill Bendell said he didn’t even realize it until after the game had ended, but Malloy had a hand in all 12 of the team’s goals, scoring eight and assisting on the other four, which is easily a Canton playoff record.

Despite the final score, it took a while for the Bulldogs to find their groove as Lynnfield went up 2-1 late in the first quarter. Part of the issue, according to Bendell, was that Lynnfield had extensive postseason experience and played a “very physical” style that the hosts were simply not used to seeing.

After a brief timeout to regroup, however, the Bulldogs rediscovered their game and then went on an absolute tear, scoring seven unanswered goals to take an 8-2 lead. Lynnfield managed to respond with a flurry of goals in the third quarter to make it 8-5, but Canton scored the final four goals to close out the game.

“It was an interesting game,” said Bendell, who likened it to an NBA basketball game with long runs by both teams.

Senior captain Max Kamin

Besides Malloy’s monster effort, Pat Ward also had a strong performance, finishing with two goals and two assists. Also contributing offensively were JC Marcone with two goals and Kurt Leavitt with a pair of assists.

Meanwhile, the entire backfield was outstanding behind Conor O’Brien, Matt Bagley, Rich Nee and Eric Wong, and goalie Devin Costa, who had a breakout season in net for the Bulldogs, delivered one of his strongest performances of the year as he helped limit the Pioneers to five goals.

As for Saturday’s loss to Weston, the Bulldogs kept it remarkably close through the first two quarters and went into halftime trailing just 5-2.

But Canton lost two key offensive players to injury in the second half — Leavitt, who had scored one of the team’s early goals, and Nick O’Connor — while Weston surged ahead with four unanswered goals to seal the victory.

“All in all, we did the best we could,” Bendell said, adding that “Weston proved to be the better team.”

The team’s other goal was scored by freshman Ben Lodge, who was moved to attack and stepped up with a solid performance.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Jun 8 2011. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.