ITEM FILE PHOTO
Marblehead co-captain Manning Sears.
By SCOT COOPER
MARBLEHEAD — What a difference a week makes for the Marblehead High boys lacrosse team. Monday’s 21-9 win over Danvers evens the record this spring to 5-5, and was their third straight win over NEC opponents.
Marblehead, in winning three straight games over Swampscott, Gloucester and Danvers, outscored its opponents by a combined score of 49-12. Senior co-captain Manning Sears said his team is not a 2-5 team, there’s too much talent to be three games under .500.
“It was gut-check time for us last week, when we just had two wins in the first seven games, this team is too good for that,” Sears said. “We have a lot of individual talent on this team, but we have to work as a team to be successful, and we certainly have done that the last three games, now the big one is coming up.”
Sears had a goal and two assists Monday afternoon for the Magicians.
That big one coming up would be at Beverly on Thursday afternoon. The Panthers have beaten Marblehead eight straight times, including a 13-8 win in Marblehead on April 11 and a 12-4 in in the Division 2 North Final last spring.
Marblehead coach John Wilkins said the team has looked pretty good the last three games, but they’ll need to pick it up considerably against Beverly.
“We’re obviously happy with the results the last few games, we’ve been moving the sticks well, we moved the stick well and ran well today against Danvers,” Wilkins said. “We have a very big game coming up, and it’s certainly better to go into that game with three straight wins, we’ll need another big effort coming up.”
Luke Anderson led the way for the winners with four goals. Sam Paquette chipped in with three, and brothers Drew and Sam Cioffi also had three goals each. Harry Craig scored a pair, and Drew Cioffi had four assists for seven points in the game. Andrew McGurrin, Nick Hurley, Sam Thompson, Jacob Garfield and Danny Gienieczko also scored for the winners.
Danvers (1-9) coach Tim Murphy said his team is young, they’re improving and they fought hard all afternoon against a very strong Marblehead team.
“I thought some of our guys played really well today, they played very hard against a strong team,” Murphy said. “We’ve been working incredibly hard in practice, our record doesn’t show it, but we are getting better.”
“We start a lot of freshmen, and sometimes it’s tough to throw 14-year olds out there against 18-year olds, but the kids are out there working hard and we’re getting there,” Murphy added.
Colby Holland had four goals for the Falcons. Mike Darras and Tom Brennan each buried two, and Brendan Treacy contributed a goal for Danvers.