Boys Lacrosse Advances To State Quarterfinal
David Creed •
The second seeded Whaler boys lacrosse team welcomed the fifteenth seeded Rockland Bulldogs to the island Wednesday afternoon and handily beat them 17-1 to advance to the MIAA Division 4 State Quarterfinal.
"Penalties were the big negative and the missed shots," Whaler head coach Sam Aloisi said. "Going forward, we can't do that. We can't afford to give away possessions. That was a big negative. Other than that, our ride was pretty good. They broke it a couple times, so we see what we got to work on there. But all in all, our defense is just playing really well. Even the few times they did get good looks, Jeremy (Jenkinson) made the saves.”
Senior Noah Stringer led the Whalers with five goals in the game, followed by four goals off the stick of Arann Hanlon – who tallied a team-high four assists as well. Aloisi was impressed with Stringer’s performance and is hopeful he is hitting his ceiling at the perfect time.
"Noah's playing well," Aloisi said. "His shot has just continued to get better all year. He's getting more accurate with it, and he's getting more comfortable with it too. That one where he dodged, I think four people down there and just kept going. That's a big part of it. When he, not just Noah but any of them, gets that confidence and scores, it snowballs because Noah definitely has the talent and the skills to do it, it's just a matter of confidence and then hitting the net, which he's doing both of them.”
Canton Jenkinson scored two goals in the game and added an assist. Jake Grant also scored two goals. Nolen Mosscrop, Andrick Mooney, Marco La Chuisa, and Ben Yates each scored one goal. Aloisi praised his defense’s physicality and said they help make the offense better.
"They're all seniors and big, strong guys," Aloisi said. "One of the real good things about our defense is our offense gets to practice against our defense every day, and it's probably the best defense they've seen all year and possibly will see. So when we come into a game, our offense, it's a stepped down - defense we're playing.
Nantucket will now host either #7 Pentucket or #10 Sandwich depending on who wins their matchup, which is scheduled for Thursday, June 4th at 6 p.m. You can view the division 4 tournament bracket here.
Below are some more photos from Wednesday's game taken by Chris Tran.
