SWAMPSCOTT — After falling to Swampscott earlier this season, the Gloucester boys lacrosse team got another crack at their Northeastern Conference rivals on the road Tuesday afternoon.
The Fishermen started strong, hanging with the talented hosts for much of the first half. But they ultimately ran out of gas as the Big Blue turned up the heat down the stretch to separate themselves for a 15-5 win — almost the exact same score as the first time around back in early April.
Gloucester goalie Jaeden Chipperini did his best to keep his team in it, finishing with a game-high 13 stops while passing the 500 career save mark in the process.
“It was a good battle,” said Gloucester head coach Geoff Kennedy, his team dipping just below .500 on the year at 5-6.”We knew from the last game that we were gonna have trouble winning face-offs, so the defense played well in the first half.”
Swampscott, meanwhile, needed a big time win to get back on track after struggling to find their rhythm the last couple of games. Although still ranked inside the qualifying top 32 in Division 3, the Big Blue were sitting two games below .500 heading into Tuesday’s clash.
“We’ve had a rough couple days, but some of our defense got exposed and we had an awakening,” Swampscott head coach Geoff Beckett said. ”It was good for the defense to really come out strong and I’m really happy with letting up (only) five goals there; that’s a pretty solid job.”
Both teams came out firing on a sunny day at Blocksidge Field, and early on it looked like it would be a much more competitive game than the first time around.
Gloucester’s Jackson Harnish and Will Linn both found the back of the net in the first quarter, but Swampscott responded with goals from Emerson Joy and Jason Rothwell. Linn would add in another goal to start the second quarter and give his team energy going into the half.
But Gloucester ultimately had no answer for the Swampscott attack, which generated what seemed like goal opportunities after goal opportunities.
“We kind of got off a bit of a slow start, but these guys kept grinding, putting up three or four goals every quarter and that’s exactly what we’re looking for,” Beckett said. “We got a freshman out there playing, a couple sophomores out there playing, so these guys are getting a ton of experience and they’re doing a lot of the right things.”
Swampscott started to pull away in the second and third with goals from Johnny Marino, Tyler Ostroff, Rothwell, and John Von Barta to give them a 6-3 lead going into the half after trailing early, 3-2.
Milo Aberle would give Gloucester a much needed goal on a pass from Finn Costa to start the second half, but the Swampscott scoring was just starting.
Two goals from Ostroff in the third quarter followed by goals from Rothwell, Joy, Von Barta, and Bennet Tierney made it 12-4 to ultimately put the game out of reach.
“All year the third quarters have really been our kryptonite, so we try to make some good halftime adjustments, but we just had a couple lackadaisical mistakes on defense, some broken plays, limited communication,” Kennedy said.
Despite the loss, Kennedy felt it was a good effort overall against an underrated Swampscott team.
“Swampscott has a great team and a great coach,” Kennedy said. “We had them in the first half, I was really proud of the offense, unfortunately that’s for 36 minutes out of the game. So I hope we play all four quarters against Marblehead and bounce back.”
Swampscott would add three more goals from Will Rowe, Von Barta, and Joy, and Gloucester’s Finn Costa would score a goal of his own on a pass from Sam Sanfilippo in garbage time, but the Big Blue would ultimately cruise to the finish line at home.
Gloucester returns to the turf against aforementioned Marblehead Thursday on the road (4:30 p.m. start).