July 1, 2008
Longmeadow ends long wait with Bay State championship
by Mike Zhe/
In the first two years he wandered through the halls of Longmeadow High School, James Reardon would walk into the gym, gaze around and think to himself that something wasn’t quite right.
Sixteen times entering this season, the Lancers had won Massachusetts state championships, which are reflected in banners that also salute league and Western Mass. titles. But, not unlike the Boston Celtics, the program seemed to have stalled on that number, with the last one coming in 1997.
“The start of my career, it was weird,” said Reardon, an attacker. “We didn’t have anything to add.”
Until now, that is.
Thanks to a come-from-behind, 14-10 win over defending champion Medfield in the Division 2 championship, the laurels are coming back to the western part of the Bay State, and there will be a new addition in the gym.
Goalie Richard Al-Husseini, a senior not even expected to be the team’s starter at the beginning of the year, made 21 saves, and junior attack Kyle Smith scored four goals and set up two others to pace the Lancers against the team that bested them in last year’s state title game.
Longmeadow isn’t the only school playing high-level lacrosse in Western Mass. Minnechaug won the Division 2 crown in 2005. South Hadley played road warrior in 2004 and plucked a title off Wellesley’s home field, and others have had their moments, too.
But the Lancers have been representing the Pioneer Valley and its environs the longest and the best, as those 17 championships attest.
“I understand what the Eastern Mass. mentality is,” said ninth-year Longmeadow coach John Rauseo, who grew up in Winchester. “Once you cross Framingham, the world is flat. I don’t want to say there’s not a lot of respect, but there are so many teams in Eastern Mass. and it’s harder to get to the end.”
Against Medfield, it was tough enough for the Lancers to get to halftime. A team that had allowed double-digit goals just twice all season found itself trailing 8-7, its defense doing most of the running as the Warriors consistently won faceoffs.
“The offense needed to settle down and the defense needed to take over,” Reardon said.
With Niko Sierra winning the draws he was losing in the first half, the Lancers maintained possession for the bulk of a 6-0 run that swung the tide of the game. Goals by Smith and Richard Travers tied the game and put Longmeadow ahead, and Medfield didn’t have an answer.
“In the second half, a couple of guys just said, ‘This isn’t going to happen,’ ” Rauseo said.
The team’s 21-2 overall record included losses to Deerfield Academy — a top New England prep team — and Division 1 state champion Duxbury.
The Lancers boast 14 seniors on their roster, but they’re hardly a team of stars. Reardon, the program’s all-time leading scorer with 329 points, will play at Vermont next year on a partial scholarship.
Smith, a junior, scored a school-record 92 goals and put up 149 points. Long-stick middie Charlie Sullivan will play at Division 3 Skidmore, and the other seniors played their roles to rave reviews.
“Right from the start, it seemed like we didn’t skip a beat,” Rauseo said. “The kids weren’t going to settle for anything less.”
All those pieces, taken together, produced something a whole community has been waiting 11 years to see. Eleven long years.
“I’ve been talking to a lot of people and alums since then,” Reardon said. “I mean, the number of alums that took it personally was unbelievable.”
Massachusetts
In Division 1, Duxbury made it five championships in a row, but this one was anything but easy.
Gus Quinzani finished off a pass from Scott Austin to seal a 14-13 overtime win over Billerica. The Dragons (22-2) extended their win streak to 90 games against MIAA opponents.
Austin and Derek Sweet each scored four times for Duxbury, while Billerica’s Jeff Scarfo sent the game to overtime with his goal with 13 seconds left in regulation.
? In Division 3, Scituate won three of four tournament games by at least 12 goals, beating Cohasset, 17-5, in the final. Greg Reynolds scored seven times as the Sailors turned the tables on the team that had ended its last two postseason runs.
Rhode Island
One could say the program at Prout School has gone from rags to riches … and riches and riches.
Prout, which only began competing at the varsity level in 2005, won its third straight state title, beating Narragansett, 11-5, in the Division 1-A championship game. The previous two years, the team had celebrated Division 2 titles.
Alex Beebe scored four goals and standout goalie John Hooper turned aside 13 shots to lead the way.
Beebe and Hooper are two of the nine seniors that joined the program as freshmen in 2005, watching the team win just two games that spring but build the foundation for something better.
“They don’t accept mediocrity,” Prout coach Dave Oswinkle told the Providence Journal. “We are a winning program and they wouldn’t accept that (mediocrity) as they bring those younger guys up. You have to give a lot of credit to those nine kids.”
? Senior Greg Fallon earned game MVP honors, and North Kingston closed out its second Division 1 championship in three years with a 13-10 win over La Salle Academy.
? Mount St. Charles celebrated a title in just its second year of varsity play, doubling up Middleton, 12-6, to wear the Division 2 crown. Tim Blair (four) and Phil Winslow (three) combined for seven goals and the Mount led 10-2 in the third quarter.
New Hampshire
There were no roadblocks for talented Bishop Guertin en route to its second Division 1 title in four years. At least not ones it couldn’t overcome.
The star-studded Cardinals fended off Pinkerton Academy, 14-11, for the championship. Siena College-bound Pat Daley led the way with four goals and two assists, while Kyle Curry had four goals of his own.
BG goalie Brent Lyskawa, playing just 10 days after his younger brother, Alex, died in a motorcycle racing accident, finished with 16 saves. Several of his best came early on and kept the Cards from falling into a hole.
UMass-bound Eric Harries added a goal for BG, which had bolstered its resume with close non-league losses to Massachusetts Division 1 champion Duxbury (21-15) and Bay State runner-up Billerica (12-11).
? In Division 2, Bow closed outs its fourth championship in seven years with an 11-5 win over seventh-seeded Oyster River. David Bucchino made 12 saves and the Falcons opened the game by scoring six of the first seven goals.
? In Division 3, Hollis-Brookline capped a late-season surge with a 7-4 upset of top-ranked Portsmouth. The Cavaliers won their last nine games to secure their first championship, with their defense holding the Clippers scoreless for a 34-minute stretch.
Connecticut
Chase Bailey’s fifth goal of the night in triple overtime ended a 15-14 win over Ridgefield and earned Fairfield Prep its third consecutive Class L championship.
In this instant classic, Syracuse-bound Spenser Parnell chased down a loose ball to set up the winning goal, which capped nearly 60 minutes of lacrosse on a 90-degree afternoon in Norwalk.
“It’s a shame somebody had to lose a game like this,” Prep coach Chris Smalkais told the Connecticut Post.
The game featured six ties in the second half, with Colin Scott of Ridgefield forcing OT with his goal with less than a minute to play.
? Standout goalie Jameson Love made nine saves and Darien closed out its fourth straight Class M title with an 11-4 win over New Canaan. Nikki Dysenchuk scored five goals and assisted on another for the Blue Wave, who finished with a 22-1 record.
? Stopped short in the past, New Fairfield made sure nothing stopped it in Class S. The Rebels capped off an undefeated, 23-0 season with their first state championship, outgunning seventh-seeded Weston, 17-7, in the title game. Duke-bound defender C.J. Costabile scored three goals and assisted on four others, and Sean Macey and Mike Hopkins each added three goals.
Vermont
Top-seeded Essex eschewed individual introductions before the title game and then played stifling team defense to secure its second straight Division 1 championship.
The Hornets held second-seeded Champlain Valley scoreless in the second half of their 7-4 win. Andrew Fournier scored three goals to pace the attack.
“I can’t say enough good things about our players,” Essex coach Dean Corkum told the Burlington Free Press. “They were selfless. They handled themselves with grace and class all season. They overcame adversity.”
Goalie Nick Cheney was credited with six saves, including a pair with CV down just 6-4 in the final period.
The Hornets finished with a 16-3 record and peaked at the end, winning their three playoff games by a combined score of 33-10.
? Threes were wild for Burr and Burton Academy in Division 2. The Bulldogs scored the first three goals in the championship game against Rice Memorial and got to celebrate their third title in five years with a 7-4 win. Ben Brownlee scored three goals and set up another for BBA, and Tim Russell made 14 saves in net.
Maine
He began the year with as much hype as any goalie in the state, and when it mattered most, Yarmouth’s Jon Poole proved worthy of it.
Poole, an all-state selection a year ago, made 15 saves and didn’t allow a goal until the second half as Eastern Maine top seed Yarmouth beat Western Maine No. 2 Cape Elizabeth, 9-4, in the Class B championship game.
“The goalie played very well, and he made quite a few saves, especially in the beginning of the game,” Cape coach Ben Raymond told the Portland Press-Herald. “It gave them some momentum.”
By the time Zach Belden scored for the Capers 1:39 into the third quarter, the team was chasing a 4-1 deficit.
Jason Hichborn scored three times to lead the Clippers, who won their first state title in 2006 and finished the season 13-2.
? In Class A, Scarborough scored three unanswered goals in the final six minutes of play to overtake defending champion Brunswick, 8-6. Ryan Hunt scored four goals and Chris Kipp added three, including the one that knotted the score at 6 with 5:58 left. It was the second state title in three years for the Red Storm (13-2).
