RallyNorth.net

Mon, Apr 21, 2008 04:00 PM @ Salem (MA)

Team	Final
Gloucester	4
Salem (MA)	5

Late comeback not enough for Fishermen

Tuesday, April, 22 By Nick Curcuru
Staff writer

Gloucester boys lacrosse coach Drew Dominick has a seemingly simple philosophy on what is the key to playing winning lacrosse | play solid for four quarters.

 Unfortunately for the Fishermen, they turned in just one quarter of solid play in their 5-4 loss to Salem yesterday at Salem High School.

Gloucester (1-4) put together a spirited fourth-quarter comeback. Down three goals, the Fishermen rallied to tie, only to see Salem's Frank Lento net his third goal of the game to give the Witches (1-3) the lead with 33 seconds to play. Despite the fourth quarter play, Dominick did not see much to be happy about.

"There wasn't a lot of good that came out of this game," Dominick said. "We have yet to come out and make plays this season. We aren't getting to ground balls, we aren't making good passes and we aren't playing physical. We played well in the fourth quarter but you can't wait that long if you want to win games."

On the other hand, Salem coach Mark Higley was pleased to see his team grind out a win.

"It was nice to come out on top," Higley said. "We did a very good job pressuring their attackers. We made them feel uncomfortable when they were trying to settle into their offense."

Salem jumped out to a 1-0 lead late in the fourth quarter when Lento was able to fight his way through the Gloucester defense and beat Fishermen goalie Shane Stephenson.

Pete Cavallaro made it 3-0 Witches at the half with two second quarter goals. The Fishermen could not find any offense in the first half, with just one shot on goal.

Senior attack Marc Buotte was finally able to get the Fishermen on the board in the third quarter when he beat goalie Nick Romeo with a hard low shot. Gloucester's momentum was short-lived, however, as Lento put the Witches back up by three going into the fourth quarter.

The Fishermen began to show some life in the fourth quarter. Buotte added two more goals to make it 4-3 before David Greenleaf tied the score with just under six minutes to play.

The next five and a half minutes were dominated by the Fishermen, but they were unable to score.

Salem would seize the last opportunity they got when Lento scored on a perfect pass from Matt Keiler to give the Witches the game-winner.

"We didn't panic when they came back on us," Higley said. "We treat the game as if it's 0-0 the entire way through, we stayed focused and we were able to come out with a win."

While pleased with the comeback, Dominick wished his team played the way they played in the fourth quarter all game.

"It was too little too late," Dominick said of his team's fourth quarter run. "We can't play just one quarter a game."

With one quarter of the season in the books, the Fishermen will look to improve their play and make a run at the state tournament.

"We're looking to improve in every aspect of the game," Dominick said. "We need to clear the ball better and play smarter. We aren't where we should be and we have a lot of work to do."