Westfield’s Matt Lacroix (11) attempts to squeeze a shot past the Longmeadow defense on Monday. (Photo by Chris Putz)
WESTFIELD – It was clearly a tale of two halves in a high school boys’ lacrosse game between the Westfield Bombers and Longmeadow Lancers Monday in the Whip City.
Westfield put up a fight – and four goals – as the home team built a 4-2 lead heading into halftime. But in the second half, unbeaten Longmeadow rallied for eight unanswered goals en route to a 10-4 win.
Drew Kelleher helped fuel the victory, leading Longmeadow (10-0) with three goals and three assists. Kelleher had a hand in three goals in the fourth quarter, scoring one and assisting on two others. Kevin Barry netted a hat trick for the Lancers. He notched his team’s first goal of the game in the first quarter, and tallied a pair in that fourth-quarter outburst.
“They had a nice run and we couldn’t stop it,” Westfield coach Mark Cavalon said.
Longmeadow’s Zack Lucas scored two goals, including the game-tying goal with 6:14 remaining in the third quarter. He tacked on an insurance goal late. Keegan Dudeck recorded the go-ahead goal with 10:05 left in the game, and also assisted on Will Lucas’s goal late.
Longmeadow took advantage of penalties committed by Westfield (7-3) – the first three Lancers’ second-half goals were a direct result of being a man-up – and turnovers.
“We had too many penalties,” coach Cavalon said. “And we came down and turned the ball away. We need to do a better job finishing shots.”
“They’re a good team,” Cavalon said of the Lancers. “But we have to play better – bottom line.”
Ryan Wilson (assist) scored two goals to lead Westfield. Bombers’ Kevin Papineau (assist) and Chris Pray had one apiece. Luke Chlastawa and Matt Lacroix each finished with an assist.
Matt Draymore collected five saves in net for Longmeadow as his defense took care of much of the work ahead of him. Westfield goalie Jake Cupak made several big saves in net and finished with a total of 13 in defeat.
“We know we’re a good team,” Cavalon said. “This is one game. There are going to be a lot of games like this coming up. It’s not a playoff game or a championship game.”
Notes: Westfield entered Monday’s game, having thwarted Cathedral 15-1. Ryan Wilson had four goals to lead the Bombers.
