HAMILTON — When does a season opening victory on a cold afternoon in late March feel like a postseason triumph in early June?
When you’re the Hamilton-Wenham boys lacrosse team, which had prevailed in just two of their previous 32 contests over the last two years.
So you certainly had to feel good for the Generals, who whooped it up and celebrated in a way they hadn’t been able to in a long time Tuesday afternoon on one of their school’s new turf surfaces following a 13-7 triumph over visiting Danvers to begin the 2026 season.
“This has been a long time coming,” junior midfielder Billy Brown, who scored five goals Tuesday, said. “We got destroyed by that team last year (17-5) and we knew they were good again. So for us to do this … it’s just awesome.”
“We were ready for this,” veteran head coach Jim LaSelva, now in the third year of his second stint coaching the Generals, with a four-year stop coaching at his alma mater, Beverly High, in between. “These juniors (making up 11 of 28 players on the roster, with just one senior) have been getting their heads kicked in since they were freshmen, and now it’s their time to give it back.”
Sophomore attack Zach Sachel, who had 16 goals a year ago, powered the offense Tuesday with six goals. Four of those came in the second half, including three of the Generals’ final five tallies as they snapped a 7-7 tie by ripping the twine six straight times before the final buzzer sounded.
“This offense just works very well together,” the 15-year-old Sachel said. “It’s our community of offense putting in the work at practice to get better. It wasn’t just me out there; we have a lot of playmakers.”
“Billy has someone he can pass the ball to now,” LaSelva said of both Brown and Sachel. “(Sachel) helps a lot; he’s a beast.”
Returning junior goaltender Jackson Pitkin picked up the win in net for Hamilton-Wenham, finishing with 16 saves. His counterpart, Danvers senior Lincoln Smith, turned aside 13 shots.
With Hamilton-Wenham up one (6-5) at halftime, the hosts were assessed a 2-minute locked in penalty early in the third quarter, and Danvers hoped to take advantage. Instead, the Generals got the ball back Sachel scored a big man-down goal, making it 7-5.
Although the Falcons rallied to get tallies from sophomore Tyler Moody and senior captain Cooper Dunham to knot it up at 7-all, an opportunity to truly take offensively went by the boards, and they weren’t physical enough defensively to keep H-W out of prime scoring areas.
“We didn’t show up today,” said head coach Dan Ritchie. “We have to be more aggressive defensively. We went through two weeks (of preseason) and looked great, and then you show up for opening day and it looks like a completely different team.
“Maybe we didn’t learn the right lessons from our final scrimmage Saturday (against Manchester Essex). Or maybe we thought we’d do what we did to these guys last year again … and that obviously wasn’t the case.”
In addition to Sachel’s six snipes and five more from Brown, the Generals got goals from junior middie Andrew Wilbur, senior newcomer Mason Gadbois (who transferred in from Essex Tech), and junior attack Reid Faldi. Eighth grade attackman Aiden LaSelva, the coach’s son, added two assists in his varsity debut, with Faldi also contributing one.
Moody paced Danvers offensively with five goals, with Dunham adding a goal and three assists. The duo tied for Falcons’ lead in scoring a year ago with 65 points.
Other scorers for the Oniontowners were sophomore mid Ben Campbell (goal) and Gadbois (2 assists). Owen Swanton and Hunter DeDominics also had strong games as well.
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