Sports Roundup: Boys Lax Advances To State Semifinal

For a second consecutive season, the Nantucket boys lacrosse team has advanced to the Div. 4 state semifinal. The Whalers, who are the defending state champions, are the fourth seed in the bracket and will be playing top-seeded Cohasset at a neutral site with the date and time of the game to be determined following an 8-5 victory over the fifth seeded Ipswich Tigers Sunday afternoon.

"That was tough. That was a tough team," Nantucket head coach Sam Aloisi said. “They played physical. They were tough. I mean that first half, I don't think we played great. But Ipswich played hard. They played good defense. They beat us in transition on both sides, offensive and defensive transition, in the first half. I think they had two fastbreak goals and a man up goal, and then we just left number one alone in the first half. Then we cleaned that up at halftime, and we only gave up one goal, a man down goal, in the second half. Our defense clamped down and we knew that was coming right. We knew that we'd have to keep it fairly low (scoring). It's been the same old story all year. Then offensively, I think the offense did a fairly good job.”

The Whalers had to earn every blade of grass on Sunday in what was one of the more physical games of the season. The teams were tied 4-4 at halftime, but Nantucket was able to ride some lockdown defense led by Canton Jenkinson, Nick and Ben Yates, Soren Edwardes, and Paxton Fitch that held the Tigers to one goal in the second half, as well as four second half goals from their star goal scorer - Arann Hanlon - to pull away from a tough Ipswich team.

"I was very confident Aaron was going to switch it on," Aloisi said. "In the third he had the ball down there behind (the net) and standing there with Tony (assistant coach) said, 'Here we go' because he had a shorty on him, and he's going to score. Then three seconds later, he scored.”

Miles Beaudette got the scoring going for Nantucket with 8:13 to go in the first quarter. Shortly after Ipswich tied the game, Noah Stringer scored to make it 2-1 with 5:59 to go in the first. Ipswich showed plenty of poise by answering Nantucket's goals and tied it 2-2 less than two minutes later. Jake Grant made it 3-2 Whalers with 3:04 left in the first quarter. Ipswich tied it 3-3 with 7:10 to go in the first half but Jake Johnson gave the Whalers their lead back with 3:14 to go in the second quarter.

Ipswich tied it 4-4 with 1:03 left in the half.

Hanlon took over the game beginning midway through the third quarter after hitting three posts and just missing on several scoring chances. His first goal came with 5:48 to go in the third quarter and then he made it 6-4 with .9 seconds left in the third with a laser of a shot top left of the net.

Ipswich cut it to 6-5 with 7:46 to play while on a man advantage but Nantucket's defense was too much to overcome. Hanlon made it 7-5 with 3:57 to go and then made it 8-5 24 seconds later to seal the game.

Aloisi said he felt Sunday’s game was as good of a team effort as his squad has had all spring and was impressed with the offense’s composure down the stretch.

"I think our guys showed a lot of composure, especially for our offense we have Miles and Jake (who are seniors), but the rest of them are underclassmen or juniors. But towards the end there it is very tempting to go to the goal when there’s an open net especially, or you got an easy shot, and they showed the discipline to not shoot it. Jake grant did a great job, all of them really. It was a good experience.”

Nantucket now shifts their sights to the Cohasset Skippers, who beat the Whalers 17-3 earlier this season and are 19-2 this season. Cohasset has won 13 games in a row while Nantucket has won seven in a row. The last loss for both teams came against Falmouth High School. Cohasset lost to Falmouth 10-6 and Nantucket lost to Falmouth 8-2.

"Cohasset again, yeah. I hope it's not 90 degrees, and I guarantee it's going to be better result than last time," Aloisi said. "We'll see, we'll see. They know us and we know them. Now we can have a couple good days of practice to get rested up and see what we can do against Cohasset.”