A slight chill hung within the air final week as vehicles whistled alongside Route 3 close by. But the Norwell Clippers have been lastly again at their sanctuary, desirous to defend their 2022 Div. 3 boys lacrosse championship after an prolonged respite.
Was there loads of optimism? Sure, how might there not be? Yet, the Clippers have determined to strategy their new marketing campaign with a way of humility, albeit desirous to make historical past.
“Right now, we’re kind of keeping the expectations real,” mentioned Norwell coach Josh Stolp. “We lost a lot of great players. We still have a lot of great players, lot of young guys. So, we’re just trying to make sure that we’re going out there every day, and sort of pushing ourselves to get a little bit better.”
Norwell (21-2) misplaced a number of vital gamers from final season’s roster, however has the return of Syracuse commit John Mullen, together with seniors Austin Shea and Timmy Ward. Ryan Daly ought to present some nice insurance coverage in web for the Clippers as properly.
Most are penciling in Medfield (19-4) because the challenger to Norwell within the Div. 3 area. The Warriors fell to the Clippers 13-11 in a hotly contested title bout final spring. Gone are the likes of former stars corresponding to Luke Murphy (taking part in at Loyola), Jack Sullivan (Mercer) and TJ Casey (UMass-Amherst). This 12 months, anticipate a powerful efficiency defensively from this explicit group helmed by Kevin Arthur, Joe Bartolotta and Will Griffin.
“At Medfield, the standard doesn’t change,” Warriors coach John Isaf mentioned. “The expectations are the same. We do have a lot of new players that are going to play big roles for us this year. I would expect the team to have the same level of competitiveness, and play with the same kind of intensity and I.Q. that Medfield usually plays with.”
Dracut (18-4) loved a breakout season in a run to the state semifinals in 2022. Now, there’s a goal on the Middies within the Merrimack Valley Conference. Rutgers commit Brock Desmarais (64 targets, 31 assists final season) will likely be coming again, as is junior Charlie Maraganis (115 floor balls, 80 prompted turnovers), who will likely be taking his lacrosse skills to Marist quickly.
When the MIAA opted to modify to a statewide event format, Hanover (15-6) made the drop to Div. 3 after having sustained success on the Div. 2 stage for years, and promptly marched proper to a state semifinals look final season. Now, the Hawks return 13 seniors, with Colin Killgoar and Ronan Kearney as captains.
Other notable groups within the Div. 3 area this season embrace Foxboro and Newburyport. Keep a watch out for Grafton to emerge as a contender from Central Massachusetts.
In Div. 4, Sandwich (19-4) figures to be a favourite. Mike McNeil watched his workforce come up one aim quick to Wahconah within the state ultimate, and the Blue Knights will seek for management from a Merrimack commit in Connor Stack, in addition to Avery Richardson, Brady Carroll, and Shane Corcoran.
“They want that opportunity,” McNeil mentioned. “But I think there’s a little bit of humility there, because it’s going to take a lot of work. … It’s actually kind of part of what we’re doing this year, is staying hungry, stay humble. And we’re trying to run back our tradition. We have a long tradition in Sandwich of having some winning teams. We graduated a lot of guys, but that fever is still there, 100 percent.”
Wahconah (21-1) misplaced loads of key people from its championship workforce, however ought to nonetheless be in competition due to a gifted junior class, led by Rylan Padelford (45 targets, 55 assists) and Noah Poirier (75% face-off win proportion).
This area figures to be pretty top-heavy this 12 months. One constant contender has been Cohasset, which reached the Final Four final season (a 13-12 time beyond regulation loss to Wahconah June 18). The Skippers (14-8) introduced again junior defenseman Declan Lee, who’s already dedicated to UMBC. Senior Colin Humphrey will likely be stepping in at goaltender this season. Cohasset additionally will see the return of one of many prime midfielders within the South Shore League, as Charlie Donovan rejoins the workforce after lacking nearly all of final season with a hip harm.
Multiple coaches throughout Eastern Mass. have pegged Weston (17-5) as presumably the workforce to beat in Div. 4, particularly as a consequence of the truth that the workforce is returning almost its whole complement of gamers from final spring.
Dover-Sherborn (13-9) has had its fair proportion of success with state title runs this latest decade, however suffered a slight setback in 2022, however making it to the Div. 4 semifinals anyway. The Raiders noticed the departure of Will Bowen and John Bennett. However, they welcome again their main scorer from final season, Wyatt Pastore. Carson Ahola is predicted to play a key function defensively, as will Luke Sveen in web.
As for potential sleepers, Lynnfield has gotten off to a scorching begin this season, and will pose potential issues for different contenders come event time. Medway can also be a program that shouldn’t be neglected.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Carson Ahola (Dover-Sherborn)
Kevin Arthur (Medfield)
Joe Bartolotta (Medfield)
Timin Carter (Dracut)
Ryan Daly (Norwell)
Brock Desmarais (Dracut)
Charlie Donovan (Cohasset)
Will Griffin (Medfield)
Lucas Leander (Rockland)
Declan Lee (Cohasset)
Charlie Maraganis (Dracut)
John Mullen (Norwell)
Rylan Padelford (Wahconah)
Wyatt Pastore (Dover-Sherborn)
Noah Poirier (Wahconah)
Avery Richardson (Sandwich)
Austin Shea (Norwell)
Connor Stack (Sandwich)
Luke Sveen (Dover-Sherborn)
Timmy Ward (Norwell)
Source: www.bostonherald.com