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St. John's Prep lacrosse pounds Chelmsford in tourney opener

Sunday, June, 01 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

DANVERS -- Simply winning one tournament game is the goal of a team that's satisfied with qualifying for the postseason.

Teams intent on winning championships aim a little higher. Case in point: East Division 1 boys lacrosse No. 2 seed St. John's Prep's performance yesterday afternoon against No. 15 Chelmsford in a first round game at Cronin Field.

A run-of-the-mill win would have been somewhat disappointing for the Eagles, but the 18-1 blasting they hung on Chelmsford was tailor made for a team looking to gain momentum as it advances in a talented bracket.

Sophomore Garrett Campbell and junior John Jennings got the Prep off to a fast start, each collecting three goals as the Eagles stormed out to an 8-0 first quarter lead.

The goal for St. John's, which now hosts No. 7 Andover on Wednesday (4 p.m.) in the quarterfinals, sat on a tripod of questions. Could the Eagles shake off the rust of a 10-day layoff? Could they prove worthy of a No. 2 seed? And, could they do it while playing without their best overall player, Mark Scalise?

All three questions were answered with a resounding yes by halftime, at which point St. John's led 14-0 and a new question -- Could the Eagles really win by shutout? -- crept into the minds of all in attendance.

The shutout was squashed with only 38 seconds to play, but it's safe to say St. John's is rolling downhill as it heads into the quarters.

"We set out to have a game like this," St. John's (17-2) coach John Roy said. "We didn't want it to be a close game. We had played Chelmsford 16-6 (in mid May) earlier and it was a sloppy affair from start to finish. It was a 10-goal win, but it was still kind of sloppy. With a layoff we wanted to try to play a neat game. We can take that (win) knowing it's only going to get tougher as we continue."

Representative from both Andover (the next opponent) and Billerica (a potential semifinal opponent) were on hand to scout the Eagles. They no doubt emptied the ink tubes of more than one pen.

The offense put up 18 goals, the defense nearly pitched a shutout, and senior midfielder Tucker Garfield dominated faceoffs, which in turn allowed the Prep to control the time of possession.

All of this was done without Scalise, a senior attackman who is arguably the best player on the North Shore. Scalise rolled his ankle in practice last week and, based on the regular season meeting with Chelmsford, the Prep coaching staff elected to keep him in street clothes.

Campbell was more than ready to accept the challenge of taking over the lead scorer's duties for Roy, finishing with eight goals and four assists, and Jennings did his share with five goals and three assists.

It's also important to note that Scalise's younger brother, freshman Matt Scalise, did an admirable job filling in for his big bro, adding three goals and three assists.

"I think Garrett sort of cherished or looked forward to the idea of Mark not being in a little, just so he could see what it would be like," Roy said of his standout sophomore. "Mark is definitely the man back there and next year we'll see what happens. Eight goals is one thing, but keeping his head up to make feeds was impressive. John likes being fed the ball and he's a good finisher. It's nice to have someone other than Mark feeding him the ball."

Connor Baldwin contributed one goal and one assist on the long pole for the Prep, and freshman Jimmy O'Connell added one goal. Single assists were also recorded by Jon Siderewicz, Brogan O'Connor and Steve Gaudet. Nick Valenti (six saves) worked a scoreless first half, while Tyler Cash (seven saves) closed it out.

The final deficit was large, and the game took that path because of what happened in the first 12 minutes.

St. John's came with energy and picked up momentum. The young Chelmsford team came with what it thought was a good game plan and picked up self-doubt after a few goals.

"You make mistakes against a team like this and they're going to sting you," Chelmsford coach Tom Gallagher said. "It was mental mistakes. Four of their first five goals were because we said, 'Ok, here you go. Go have some fun.' You can't go down five-nothing and expect that you're going to go against St. John's. These young guys have never really been a part of falling behind like that, and they think it's over."

Roy expects a much more difficult game on Wednesday. He's not sure what to expect from Mark Scalise, however.

"Andover is fast and they're well coached. I know they have had some big wins and I know it's going to be a different game," Roy said. "We have to prepare and be ready for having Mark or not having Mark. I know he'll dress and want to start, but we'll see how that goes."