MARBLEHEAD — Despite trailing for most of the first quarter, the Marblehead boys lacrosse team took the lead in the final minute and didn’t relinquish it the rest of the way, taking down Northeastern Conference foe Peabody 9-4 at Piper Field Thursday afternoon. The win, which was the 10th in a row for the Magicians, also qualified Marblehead for the state tournament.
“This is a good group and they always put in 100 percent effort,” said Marblehead coach John Wilkens. “It feels good to reach this goal, but we still have a long way to go in the season and now is no time to get complacent.”
Christian Penkrat led the way for Marblehead with two goals and one assist, while Loch Sheridan and Will Shull scored two goals each. Sam Thompson had one goal and two assists, Paul Heffernan had one goal and one assist, Adam Zamansky had one goal and Charlie Driscoll had one assist.
For Peabody, Colby Therrien paced the offense with two goals. Connor McCarron and Jack Houlden each had one goal and one assist, while Ryan Fera had one assist.
“The guys definitely stepped up and played well today,” said Peabody coach Leo Shidler. “Obviously it’s not the result we wanted, but this is a young group of guys and even in a loss like this, I think it will help us grow.”
It was actually Peabody that struck first in this one, with Houlden knocking in a one-timer from McCarron to put the Tanners up 1-0. The score remained there until the final minute of the first quarter, but then Marblehead netted back-to-back goals within 15 seconds of each other (from Sheridan and Penkrat, respectively) to take a 2-1 lead into the second quarter.
The Magicians continued to roll from there, scoring the first two goals of the second quarter to go up 4-1. The first was an unassisted goal by Zamansky, while the second came after Heffernan picked up a loose ball at midfield, ran into the offensive zone and found Penkrat on a great feed.
Peabody stopped the bleeding a bit when McCarron scored with 6:19 to go in the half, but then Marblehead responded with two goals in the final three minutes (one from Shull and one from Sheridan) to take a 6-2 lead into the halftime break.
Things got a bit interesting in the third quarter, as Peabody came out of the break strong. McCarron scored less than two minutes into the frame to get within three, then a little over five minutes later he made it 6-4 when he scored his second of the game. But, just as it happened in the second quarter, Marblehead stopped Peabody’s rally with a quick goal (this one from Shull) to make it 7-4 after three quarters.
“Unfortunately, that’s been the story for us all year,” Shidler said. “We just can’t seem to get that critical goal that puts us over the edge in these big games. But again, these guys are all young and that will all come with experience.”
The fourth quarter belonged to Marblehead, who played very solid defense and kept the clock running on offense. The Magicians went on to score two goals in the final three minutes of play (one from Thompson and one from Heffernan) to extend the lead and take home the conference victory.
“(Getting those last two goals) was huge because it gave us that separation we wanted,” Wilkens said. “We had a huddle and said the next goal is big for momentum, and we were able to go out and get it.”
Peabody (6-6) will try to get back in the win column Saturday (12:30) against Swampscott.
“We’ve got to work on our man-up situations, and we really just need to get better in all of the small facets of the game — passing, catching, turnovers. Those things are the difference between winning and losing.”
Marblehead (10-2) will take on Beverly Monday.
“Like I told the guys after the game, there’s always ways we can get better,” Wilkens said. “For us, it’s decision making. We have to be smarter with the ball out there.”