Walpole Lacrosse Runs Away from St. John's Prep in Creator's Crosse Final

By Marisa Ingemi (@Marisa_Ingemi)

LEXINGTON - Walpole used six straight goals in the third and fourth quarters to remain undefeated on the season with a 12-10 victory over St. John’s Prep in the finals of the Creator's Crosse tournament.

The Rebels (7-0) trailed to open the second half, then endured a three-goal run by the Eagles (3-4), but a strong possession second half carried Walpole.

Conor Foley scored three for the Rebels to lead the attack.

“I think that we can trust just about everyone on our team,” Foley said. “It’s just a matter of who ends up capitalizing on our  opportunities.”

Owen Hunter scored two of his three tallies on the afternoon in that stretch for Walpole, and he scored the game winner with 1:26 remaining.

“I took a timeout early in the second half, and I couldn’t take another one,” said Walpole head coach Jason Andalo. “At that point you turn it over to the guys and hope they make plays. We’ve got a lot of guys that were on the hockey team, football guys, and you need multi-sport guys to step up in this situation.”

Six different goal scorers stepped up for the Rebels, who have been one of the big surprises in the state this season.

“By this point in the season people know that those are the guys that we need to do certain things, but other guys stepped up,” said Andalo. “Owen’s probably our best dodger. Jake is crafty. We need those guys to make plays, and we need everyone else to step up. Fortunately tonight everyone did that.”

Early on, it was all Eagles as St. John’s jumped out to an initial 4-2 lead, but Walpole charged back to lead 6-5 at the half. St. John’s scored the first three goals of the second half, but the Rebels scored the next six goals to take control of the contest.

St. John’s Prep had three goal days from Jack Rickards and PJ Lombara, while goalie Mitchell Carpenter made ten saves.

The Eagles struggled with turnovers late, which prevented them from coming back in the game.

“We’re pleased with the guys we have,” said Prep head coach John Pynchon. “We just have to execute. That’s something we didn’t do in the second half. We did not execute. We made more mistakes than they did and they win.”