Vineyard boys lacrosse team wins season opener

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John Morris pursued by Bishop Stang players. - Photo by Sam Moore

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School boys varsity lacrosse team won its season opener over Eastern Athletic League rival Bishop Stang by a 9-4 score at frigid Dan McCarthy Field on Tuesday afternoon.

The Vineyarders bolted to a 5-0 lead in the first half before the Spartans got on the board. The Vineyard led 6-1 at halftime. The teams traded three goals apiece in the second half. A crowd of 40 shivering fans — and one family of ospreys nesting in a field light tower — saw a game dominated by the Vineyarder offense.

Eight Vineyarders scored, paced by Greg McCarron with two goals. Lucas DeBettencourt, Jacob Gunderson, Tom Irwin, Wayman Harrison, Riley Amaral, and co-captains Austin Chandler and Ben Clark netted single goals for the Purple. Goalkeeper Eli Laikin had six saves, several of the point-blank variety. 

The Spartans found their legs in the second half, led by diminutive attacker Riley Scales, to cut the lead to 6-3 before the Vineyarders responded with three quick goals to put the game away. Each team scored a power-play goal in the contest.

MVRHS coach Chris Green liked a lot of what he saw in the season opener. “We knew our strength was offense this year. We’ve flip-flopped from last year, when the focus was on defense. We need to possess the ball and help the defense, and if we do the fundamentals, we’ll get a ton of looks [scoring chances].”

“A lot of what I saw today was a reflection of who has been at practice,” Coach Green said. “Wayman Harrison particularly had a great game, playing man-to-man and handling ground balls. This was a feeling-out kind of day. Everyone played today. We won the ground balls and about 70 percent of the faceoffs. Now we need to fine-tune and get repetitions. We’ll work on mental toughness also, so those second-half Stang goals don’t happen again.”

The Vineyarders (1-0) play next on Friday at 4 pm at Bridgewater-Raynham.