ITEM PHOTO: KATIE MORRISON
Swampscott’s Jack Herlihy, right, tries to swat the ball away from Marblehead’s Harry Craig on Tuesday afternoon.
By SCOT COOPER
MARBLEHEAD — An uncharacteristic slow start to the season for the Marblehead High boys lacrosse team had the Magicians with just two wins over the first seven games. With Monday’s game against Swampscott moved to Marblehead because of the rain, the Magicians found everything to their liking at home, crushing the Blue 14-1.
Marblehead roared out of the gate early and often. Co-captain Manning Sears fired one by Swampscott goalie Tim Perlin just 31 seconds into the game, one of two that Sears had on the afternoon.
The Marblehead offense kept Perlin on his toes, Swampscott didn’t get a shot on Marblehead’s Neal Murray until there were four minutes gone in the first quarter.
Sam Paquette scored the first of his three goals with 10:13 left in the first, and that would prove to be the eventual game-winner.
Marblehead coach John Wilkins said that the start the team got Tuesday afternoon was just what he was looking for after a couple of tough games ended with losses where the Magicians had lost a lead late.
“We came out fast, got on the board,”Wilkins said. “We really had a good pace today. The good thing about today was we played close to four full quarters, we lost a couple of close ones because we did not play a full game. Another good thing was we were able to play everyone today.”
Joe Cronin scored the third goal for Marblehead; Andy Clough buried the fourth one. The Magicians got four goals from Drew Cioffi; his brother Sam had two goals and an assist. Paquette also scored three times for the winners, Andrew McGurrin chipped in with a goal, and Nick Hurley contributed three assists.
Marblehead was in command from the get-go, leading 6-0 after one quarter and 10-1 at the half. Murray wasn’t very busy in the net, stopping four of five Big Blue shots, Will Thompson relieved him in the fourth quarter and made four saves, keeping Swampscott off the board.
Swampscott coach Todd Pierce knew his team was going to have to play a near flawless game against a very deep Marblehead squad. The Blue did keep at it hard in the second half, but by that time, Marblehead was way out in front.
“We know that they’re an excellent, team. We know enough about them to know we can’t make mistakes, turn the ball over and play poorly in the transition game,” Pierce said. “Those guys play a very hard schedule, they’re an excellent, talented team, we want to get where they are and we’ll keep working on it.”
Wilkins said he hopes the solid effort can carry over into a difficult stretch of games coming up.
“Good to get a win, we needed it,” Wilkins said. “We have some very tough games coming up, Danvers, Beverly again, hopefully this points us in the right direction.”