Published in the April 18, 2018 edition

By DAN PAWLOWSKI

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — The Lynnfield boys lacrosse team traveled up to Manchester-Essex to take on the Hornets in their first league game of the year on Tuesday, April 10.  Coach Joe Papagni didn’t know what to expect but he knew the importance of this league match up. 

“The Hornets beat us the last two times we had played and we really wanted to come out and compete against them,” said Papagni. 

The Pioneers and Hornets played an excellent back-and-forth game. Every time the Pioneers scored a goal, the Hornets matched them and the same when the Hornets scored. 

GianLuca Alfe opened up the scoring for Lynnfield with an assist from Jackson Hammersley.  The Pioneers jumped out to a 2-0 lead when captain Jack Razzaboni scored with a nice feed from Nick Metrano.  Goaltender Zack Huynh kept the Pioneer lead, making five first period saves.  The Hornets came back to start the second quarter with two goals; one a man-up goal and one goal from a fast break.  

The Hornets jumped out to a 3-2 lead before Hammersley scored an unassisted goal. The Pioneers quickly took the lead with an other unassisted goal from Hammersley who read the Hornet goalie, picked off a a pass and went in uncontested. 

CAPTAIN Peter Look and the LHS boys’ lax team are 2-1 to start the season after a big league win over Triton. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)

Just before the half ended, the Hornets tied the game to make it 4-4 at half time.  Huyhn ended the half with 11 saves. 

The Pioneer-Hornet back-and-forth battle continued as the Pioneers got a 6-4 lead when Alfe (assist Hammersley) and captain Peter Look (Hammersely assist) gave the determined Pioneers a second half lead.  The Hornets were ready to pack it in but came back with two late third quarter goals to tie the game going into the fourth stanza. 

The Pioneers knew this game would come down to the final minute and were looking for the break to get them back into the lead.  With Huynh playing great in goal, the Pioneer defense kept the pressure offense at bay until four minutes left in the game when the Hornets pulled ahead by a goal.  The Pioneers pressured the Hornets looking for the tying goal but couldn’t tie it up until Nick Metrano took a pass from Look and was able to sneak open with 1 minute 50 seconds  remaining to tie the score.

The celebration lasted only a minute as the Hornets scored the winning goal soon after.

The Pioneers didn’t give up and with 10 seconds remaining, Hammersely had a fast break and passed to Alfe, but his shot was stopped by the Hornet goalie with the rebound shot from Metrano also saved.

After the game Coach Papagni commented that he was proud of his team’s complete game effort but pointed out the little things that his team needs to do to win these tough league games.

Beat Triton

The Pioneers travelled to Triton to take on the Vikings Friday night and came back with an 8-5 win.  In  a game that Coach Papagni described as sloppily-played from both teams, the Pioneers jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead. 

Jack Razzaboni, Peter Look Jackson Hammersley and Razzaboni again scored the goals for Lynnfield.

“It was great jumping off to a quick lead but this team has got to realize that we need to keep the pressure on all of our opponents,” said Papagni. 

Triton scored the next three goals to ensure the Pioneers that they were not going to be in for an easy game.  The Pioneers racked up 10 penalties during the long afternoon to make things even more difficult.

“Thank goodness for our man down defense,” said Papagni, as Hunter Allain, Harry Drislane, Mike Dreher, captain Anthony Murphy and Jackson Hammersley, along with goalie Zack Huynh kept the Vikings off of the scoreboard during all of the penalties. 

After the Vikings scored their 4th goal to tie the score, the Pioneers began to “get it” and starting taking advantage of some Viking turnovers. Razzaboni  scored three more goals along with Look and Hammersley in the second half to open up the game. 

The final score was 8-5 Pioneers.  Jack Razzaboni had five goals, Look had two and Hammersley had one. Assists were from Anthony Murphy and Razzaboni. Huynh had nine saves.

The Pioneers hosted Revere on Tuesday after press time and Northeast Metro on Wednesday. They then travel to Tyngsboro on Friday.