RallyNorth.net

Sun, Jun 08, 2008 02:00 PM @ Billerica

Team	Final
Playoff Game
St. John's	9
Billerica	12

Billerica's transition game ends Prep run

Monday, June, 09 By Bill Kipouras
Staff writer

It was almost an hour before Mark Scalise emerged from the locker room, looking beat and still hobbling from the sprained ankle that sidelined him for 10 days during the St. John's Prep lacrosse team's tournament run.

Scalise, the Eagles' two-sport star, had an early goal | his 39th of the season and 106th point | and calmly conceded Billerica had shut him down. Billerica's Matt Langill had locked Scalise in en route to a 12-9 victory that shut the door on the Eagles in a Division 1 East lacrosse semifinal match played in draining 95 degree weather.

Some of the players said it was difficult to breath at times. Why not? Cronin Field was more fitting for a steam bath. The penetrating sun never did let up. There was barely a breeze. The concession stand sold out at halftime. The Prep players had been on a heavy duty water and Gatorade diet for two days. It still didn't help.

The Prep inexplicably wilted in the third quarter. Hat trick contributor John Jennings and senior long pole Connor Baldwin scored on successive shots to make it 7-all. The visiting Indians rattled off five unanswered goals, however, for a 12-7 lead that was pretty imposing.

Billerica had a transition game that would have made Steve Nash proud, and that was the basic difference. Billerica was systematic and disciplined, not necessarily quicker, but they had a senior goalie, Pat O'Laughlin, who didn't need any four-leaf clovers to have a hallmark game. O'Laughlin made 17 saves of all descriptions.

"That was easily Pat's best performance of his career," Billerica assistant coach Grant Whiteway said. The Prep would never argue that point.

The coach's son, freshman attack Grant Whiteway, wasn't too shabby, either, with three goals and two assists. Junior attack Greg Melaugh submitted five goals and two assists, and senior Mike Scarfo had two goals and three assists.

"The goalie did have a huge game," the Harvard-bound Scalise said of O'Laughlin. "The third period? Well, they had the ball most of the time in the first half and it was tough to play in such difficult conditions. We got tired and they capitalized. It was hard to dodge people. The fact is I think they tired us out."

The Prep gave up six goals in the third quarter (four in a span of 4:15 late in the period) and the Eagles (18-3, unbeaten since May 3) had averaged a 6.4 yield per game in a great season in which the Prep made its furthest advance in the lacrosse postseason tournament.

They had won eight in a row until Billerica applied some added heat yesterday. The Eagles had averaged 12 goals per game and wound up 2-3 in games in which they scored less than 10 goals.

"We played hard. I think we played well," Jennings said. "But it got away from us in the third. Yeah, they had a good fast break. They pushed the ball well, and when you're down four or five goals it's tough to come back against a team like Billerica. They got out well on us with their transition. It was disappointing, but we still made a good run."

The 17-year-old from Danvers closed his season as the Prep's top marksman with 67 goals.

But even after a disastrous third period, the Prep, trailing 12-7, saw the window of opportunity open when Billerica was called for an illegal stick, giving the Prep a three-minute, locked-in advantage that was frustrated by O'Laughlin. On a couple of occasions he stuffed Garrett Campbell and Tucker Garfield, who had each already scored for the Prep. That was the turning point of the match, although Griffin Cardew and Jennings scored 11 seconds apart at 5:56 and 5:45 to narrow it to 12-9.

It was too little and too late. The Prep also hurt its cause with four penalties in the last four minutes.

On the day Billerica twice scored with a man advantage.

How good is Billerica? "I'd give them a shot at Duxbury," Prep coach John Roy said.

"Such a hot day to play in," Prep defender John Whitney, who scored a rare goal, said.

"I'd say they got a few more bounces, but Billerica's a really good team. I tip my cap to them. The goalie was unbelievable. They had a lot of good goal scorers. It's a good program and they had a lot of talent to offer."

The Prep beat Andover in the quarterfinals and Andover beat Billerica in the regular season. The Prep was the No. 2 seed, Billerica was No. 3. and there were no excuses. As the Prep kids so graciously said, Billerica was an excellent team.