July 29, 2011
Stunning victories for Rhode Island high school champs
by Kevin Henkin/
East Greenwich begins its celebration after beating Prout, 8-5, for the boys' Division 2 championship.
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It’s fair to say that coach Steve O’Donnell and his LaSalle Academy team were on a mission to win their first Rhode Island boys’ Division 1 state title. LaSalle dominated the 2010 regular season, going 14-0 before suffering a heart-breaking defeat in the finals to Moses Brown.
Unfortunately for the Rams, 2011 felt like a painful case of déjà vu.
Once again, LaSalle (9-1 in the regular season) tore through its Div. 1 opponents in 2011, only to fall to Bishop Hendricken in a stunning 6-4 championship upset.
The two teams had faced off twice during the regular season, and LaSalle had dominated both games with 11-1 and 13-3 victories. LaSalle’s veteran squad was led by All-Americans Cody O’Donnell on defense and Ryan Poirier at midfield and was considered a heavy favorite in the final against Hendricken. But it was the Hawks (5-5 in the regular season) that rose to the occasion in the game that mattered most.
“We simply did not play anywhere near our potential,” Steve O‘Donnell said afterward. “For reasons not quantifiable, we did not execute any type of offense and played OK defense. Hendricken clearly came to play and outplayed us.”
He also credited Hendricken goalkeeper Tim Ryan with stymieing the formidable LaSalle offense, especially after the Hawks took hold of a narrow 5-3 lead with 12 minutes left to play. The victory represented Hendricken’s fifth lacrosse state title overall and the team’s first since 2007.
Portsmouth (7-6), the only team to beat LaSalle during the regular season, and Moses Brown (6-9) put together solid semifinal runs.
In Div. 2, the East Greenwich Avengers (11-7) found their groove at exactly the right time of the year and emerged from the pack to take home a title-clinching 8-5 victory over Div. 2 South champion Prout (13-3).
East Greenwich coach Brian Trapani dismissed the dark-horse status tagged to his team and pointed out that once his roster was able to come together as a whole, its talent was finally able to shine through.
“Injuries and player-availability issues were keeping us from any sort of consistency,” he said. “Once the regular season was nearing its end, we were able to set up a stable roster and playoff depth chart that we followed, with only minor adjustments, through to the championship.”
He also credited the enormous contributions between the pipes from an unexpected source.
“We lost our starting varsity goalie a third of the way through the season so our JV goalie, Dante Granatiero, got the call and stepped up beautifully,” Trapani said. “Dante ended the season with a 71 percent save percentage, a fantastic figure considering he only had a little over a year of practical goalie experience prior to this season. His improved clearing play also contributed greatly to winning the possession battle.”
Granatiero tallied 17 saves overall in the title game while senior attackman Lucas Stralka paced the scoring with four goals.
In Div. 3, Smithfield (14-2) took home its first state title with a 6-4 win over Toll Gate (8-6). Toll Gate headed into the season looking to erase memories of a heartbreaking last-minute loss in the final last year but found the goalkeeping of Smithfield senior Kevin Reall and his surrounding defense (which allowed 42 goals on the year, fewest in Div. 3) just too much to overcome.
In girls’ lacrosse, Barrington (16-1) remained the team to beat until proven otherwise. Even with a young squad that had lost eight seniors to graduation from the previous season and featured five freshmen starters, the Barrington Eagles headed into the state championship game undefeated with 16 wins. Barrington also had
earned state titles in nine of the past 10 years, but a scrappy North Kingstown team — after six prior trips to the final without ever taking the crown — finally carried the day with a convincing, 10-4 victory for the Div. 1 title.
Barrington coach Peter Brock cited the magnificent performance of North Kingstown’s goalie Katy Vincent as one of the primary game-changers.
“When you have a hot goalie and you’re a really determined team and you’re mature compared to the opposition, that’s going to be enough to get you the win,” he said.
On offense, Skippers co-captain Julia Smiley spearheaded the offensive attack with a goal and four assists. North Kingstown (14-2) had advanced past LaSalle (12-4) in the semifinals in a hard-fought, 13-11 win, while Barrington beat East Greenwich (11-4) by a score of 17-12.
In the Div. 2 final, it was a fitting matchup between the two best teams in the realigned division (which absorbed the Div. 3 teams as well as Portsmouth from Div. 1). Both Lincoln and Tiverton — winners of the Div. 2 North and South regular-season titles, respectively — brought undefeated 16-0 records into the championship game, but it was Tiverton that came away with the 12-8 win and its first state title.
The primary focus for Tiverton heading into the game was to contain Jill DeSimone at the attack. DeSimone, who scored a state-leading 96 goals in the regular season for Lincoln, tallied a hat trick in the title game along with teammate Ashley Moreau, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Tiverton’s balanced attack. Megan Raposa led her team, as she had all season long, with four goals and earned MVP honors for her efforts.
Even with the loss, the Lincoln Lions program deserves credit for taking major strides forward after winning only three games in the prior two seasons. The Lions had advanced past Narragansett (9-6) and preseason favorite Portsmouth (13-3) to reach the final, while Tiverton earned its championship berth with wins over Cranston East (7-9) and Cumberland (12-4).
This article originally appeared in the July 2011 issue of New England Lacrosse Journal.
Kevin Henkin can be reached at feedback@laxjournal.com
