Dover-Sherborn tips Medfield in closing seconds in TVL boys lacrosse showdown

DOVER — The way the Medfield boys lacrosse team had dominated its first five opponents, it was fair to ask whether anyone from the Tri-Valley League would give the Warriors a true test this season.

Dover-Sherborn did just that on Thursday. And a whole lot more.

In a clash of the reigning Div. 2 and 3 South sectional champions, the Raiders rallied from four goals down in the second half for a thrilling 10-9 triumph as senior Ben Teich struck for the game-winner with 32.4 seconds remaining, giving D-S its first win over Medfield since 2017.

“That was one of my favorite lacrosse games of all-time,” said D-S senior captain Pierce Gregory, who had four goals and two assists. “I was so pumped, it was back and forth. To beat Medfield for the first time in my high school career feels awesome.”

Bradley Peterson narrowly missed giving D-S (5-1) its first lead of the game from in tight with just over a minute left on a feed from Teich, but the Raiders maintained possession and Gregory found Teich, who buried his fourth goal of the day, all coming in the second half.

TJ Casey won the ensuing faceoff for Medfield (5-1), which called timeout with 19.4 seconds to play, but D-S senior goalie Standish Carothers had one more huge save left in him in the waning moments, his 13th overall, to seal the victory.

“You don’t see too many regular-season games where you storm the goalie like that,” said Teich of the postgame celebration. “That’s got to be right behind the (2017) state championship.”

Medfield, which had outscored foes by a 98-17 count entering the contest, led 7-3 midway through the third quarter when Gregory broke a D-S drought of more than 18 minutes, sparking a run of four straight goals that tied it at 7-7 with 9:53 to play.

Medfield twice regained the lead on scores by Sam Hedges, who led the Warriors with four goals, but each time D-S had an answer, first by Teich and then Gregory, knotting the game again at 9-9 with 4:49 remaining.

“I think offensively we had a little more patience, made them work a little bit,” said D-S coach Brian McLaughlin of the second half. “Their faceoff guy is so tremendous, we didn’t get a lot of possessions. We played a lot of defense in that first half, so I was trying to get us to get the ball and calm down and just work it a little more and let the defense rest a little bit because they played phenomenal, but Medfield had the ball quite a bit.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3v8Nguf