DANVERS — Go to any beach in the world and, as calm as the waters may appear at times, the tide is eventually going to come crashing in.
Like the mighty ocean, the offense of the St. John’s Prep lacrosse team in 2021 can only be held dormant for so long; eventually, it’s going to come crashing down on its foes.
Saturday afternoon at unseasonably cold and rainy Glatz Field against an excellent Hingham squad, the Eagles’ mighty wave came crashing down in the third quarter, when they scored six goals to break open a halftime tie and pull away for a 10-5 triumph.
St. John’s Prep captain Michael Kelly (center) is congratulated by his teammates after one of his three goals during Saturday’s 10-5 victory in the rain over Hingham. Rose Raymond photo
Remaining unbeaten at 8-0, St. John’s Prep got three goals and an assist from senior midfielder and captain Michael Kelly and two tallies each from brothers Jimmy and Michael Ayers, the former a sophomore attack and the latter a senior long stick middie.
“I personally love these high intensity games. We knew we’d have a real fight on our hands; Hingham always brings it,” said Michael Ayers. He was wearing the team’s de facto ‘Player of the Game’ talisman: a thick silver chain link necklace with a good-sized golden eagle than hung off it, something the Prep players simply call ‘The Chain’.
“We were able to get out in the second half and run, which is what we love to do,” Ayers continued. “Hingham kept the game settled and on their terms in the first half, but we broke out and played more on our terms the last two quarters.”
St. John’s Prep defensive middie Drew Fietze stick checks Hingham’s Paul Forbes Saturday in the rain at Glatz Field. Rose Raymond photo
The two squads traded goals to open the third quarter, with Jimmy Ayers connecting for the hosts and Paul Forces answering for the Harbormen (now 8-2). But as Graham Tyson (8-of-12) and Owen Umansky (6-of-7) constantly won faceoff after faceoff for the home team, the Eagles began to get into a rhythm offensively and started pumping in goals rapidly.
Middie Charlie Wilmot gave St. John’s a lead it’d never relinquish, scoring midway through the quarter to make it 5-4. Kelly netted his third goal less than a minute later; fellow mid Tyee Ambrosh made it a three-score game on the next possession; and Michael Ayers dodged a few Hingham defenders while swerving his long pole deftly downfield and snapped home another goal 13 seconds later.
St. John’s Prep sophomore attackman Jimmy Ayers winds up for a shot during Saturday’s win over Hingham. Rose Raymond photo
Hingham snapped that streak on a pretty no-look backhand goal by John Sula, but Thomas Sarni got it back for the Eagles with a beauty snipe of his own, giving the Eagles a commanding 9-5 lead after three. Michael Ayers’ hard, accurate shot from 20 feet out front finished the scoring in the final period.
“It was about staying with the game plan and not being stressed out that Hingham was slowing the ball down, that it was tied at halftime or what we hadn’t been able to do yet,” said Prep head coach John Pynchon, whose club has outscored its eight foes by a combined 113-32 margin. “Could we manage that, stay mentally tough and have the discipline to understand it? The answer to all of those was yes.”
Senior captain and long stick middie Michael Ayers, who had a pair of goals in the Prep’s 10-5 win Saturday, works his way downfield past the attempted stick check of a Hingham player. Rose Raymond photo
If not for the exploits of Hingham goaltender Sam Bellomy, who made eight of his 13 saves in the second half, the final outcome could’ve been much more decisive in the Prep’s favor.
Senior Kaden Quirk, the Prep’s own elite netminder, finished with eight saves. In front of him, defenders Emmett Schillinger, Tim Haarmaan, Connor Kelly, Michael Ayers and short sticks such as Charlie Danis, Lucas Verrier and Grady McGowan were physical and active with their sticks against a dangerous Hingham offense.
Pynchon, who compared Michael Ayers’ skill set as an LSM to one of his best-ever defenders, Jack Liacos, a decade ago during his time coaching at Beverly High, said that by his getting to the front of net continually on Prep possessions it allowed his teammates to get open and attack the Harbormen’s spread out defense while peppering the net with high percentage shots. More than half of the Eagles’ goals came in unsettled situations.
“If we can play in that type fashion, getting 3-4 goals in a row by winning draws and sprinting downfield to score, then doing it all over again,” said Pynchon, “it’s incredibly difficult to stop with the athletes we have.”
A close defenseman growing up, Michael Ayers said he learned to play LSM by watching older teammates such as Robbie Dinsmore and Jackson Klein, and how they’d push the play offensively.
“Their stick skills and how they could attack other teams’ defenses, it made us that much more dangerous and really helped our offense in transition,” he said. “It was a big point for me to make sure that my own stick skills were ready to go and push the offense when my time came, especially with the great attackmen and athletic middies we have that can get up and down the field so fast.”
The Eagles should be tested again this week when they face Catholic Conference foes Xaverian Tuesday night (6) at the Hawk Bowl in Westwood, and again on Friday at B.C. High (5:30 p.m.) in Dorchester.
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