NEWBURYPORT — It was déjà vu on James T. Stehlin Field.
A year ago, the No. 3-seeded Newburyport boys lacrosse team played a rough first half against No. 6 Dracut in the Division 3 Quarterfinals, trailing 7-2 at one point and 7-4 at halftime. Things felt rather bleak. But the Clippers rallied after the break like a team possessed, stiffling the Middies to just one goal the entire second half to pull out the 11-8 victory.
And the same scriptwriter must have showed up on Saturday.
Seeded one spot lower at No. 4 this year, Newburyport played a similarly tough first half and trailed No. 5 Nauset in their Division 3 Quarterfinal game, 7-2, at the break. But as the heavans opened up for a quick 10-minute downpour, Duncan Coir found the back of the net with 90 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 9-9, and eventually send us to overtime.
For the second year in a row, the Clippers had made the unlikely comeback.
But this time, the glass slipper didn’t fit.
Through driving rain, Nauset junior Logan Poulin won the opening faceoff of overtime, and turned on the jets. The University of Vermont commit entered the offensive zone, leaped as a Newburyport defender was crashing down on him, and uncorked a rocket that buried itself into the upper-left corner just six seconds into the extra frame. Nauset had withstood Newburyport’s comeback, and Poulin’s goal sent the Warriors moving on to the Division 3 Final Four with a dramatic, overtime win over the Clippers, 10-9.
“I dream of something like that happening every night,” said Poulin. “You want to win no matter what, overtime or regulation. Anything you can do to help the team win. So it’s pretty awesome to be able to do that. … I was slipping with the rain. I honestly didn’t even see the net, I just shot it as hard as I could and hoped for the best.”
Unfortunately, it was a game that somebody had to lose.
And for basically the entire first half, Newburyport (15-6) appeared to be that team. Behind Poulin, Joe Berardi, Riley Meehan and Colby Smith, Nauset (12-9) opened up a 7-1 lead before a goal from Colin Fuller gave the hosts a tiny spark of momentum heading into halftime.
But in another great display of grit, the Clippers weren’t about to go out in a blowout.
“I actually mentioned (last year’s Dracut game) at halftime to the boys,” said Newburyport coach Josh Wedge. “We were almost in the same position last year, and we came back. And it doesn’t surprise me at all. I would have been really surprised if we’d got blow out today. Even when it was 7-1, I felt like we were going to make a game of it. Whether this game was 10-9 us or them, it doesn’t change how I feel about the game. We played hard, and we deserved to win if it happened.
“But it didn’t.”
Boy did it almost, though.
Eli Sirota wasted no time, scoring early in the third quarter to make it 7-3. Sophomore Matt Page then won back-to-back faceoffs, and goals from Fuller and Carter Scott made it 7-5. After a stop from junior goalie Brendan Grossman (10 saves), Fuller came down and scored his fourth of the game to make it 7-6 midway through the quarter, and send the Clipper bench into a frenzy.
It was all happening again.
And it would stay a 7-6 game until the fourth quarter, when back-to-back goals from Asher Kinsey and Fuller completed the comeback, and put the Clippers back on top, 8-7, with eight minutes left. The entire time the Clippers were on their seven-goal streak, defenders like Gus Webster, Logan Jones, Jack Sherman, Brian Lucy and Everett Kenney kept Nauset at bay. The Warriors were getting anything they wanted offensively in the first half, but could barely get any clean shots off on Grossman — or shot it wide –for the bulk of the second half.
“We had a zone defense ready to go, and we thought it’d be successful,” said Wedge. “I thought our defense did a great job. Once we went to the zone, it was 6-1, and (Nauset) only scored one time from like the middle of the second quarter, to late in the fourth.”
Nauset’s first goal of the entire second half came with 2:33 left in the fourth quarter.
It came from Poulin, and after the UVM-commit won the ensuing faceoff, Berardi sniped one through a hole in the top of the net to put the Warriors back up, 9-8, with 1:52 left. Poulin then actually won the next faceoff as well, but with the rain coming down hard, slipped while entering the offensive zone and Newburyport picked up the ground ball. Coir came right down and scored with 1:30 left, and after a frantic final 90 seconds, we were headed to OT.
You couldn’t have asked for better drama.
But Poulin made sure it was a lightning-quick encore, taking just six seconds to send the Warriors to the Division 3 Semifinals, where they will play No. 1 Medfield.
“He’s really good and really fast,” said Wedge on Poulin. “And when you’re that fast, it’s hard for the wings to crash down on him after a faceoff. We threw a check, it didn’t land, and he let one fly. He’s just really good.”
Nauset 10, Newburyport 9 (OT)
Division 3 Quarterfinals
Goals: Colin Fuller 5, Carter Scott, Duncan Coir, Eli Sirota, Asher Kinsey
Assists: Sirota
Saves: Brendan Grossman 10
Nauset (12-9): 3 4 0 2 1 — 10
Newburyport (15-6): 1 1 4 3 0 — 9