Duxbury Runs Away from Billerica

By Marisa Ingemi (@Marisa_Ingemi)

BILLERICA - Fueled by nine different goal scorers, Duxbury was able to torch Billerica 15-10 in a road contest on Wednesday night. The Dragons (13-3) jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Indians (10-8) scored the next three to make it a tightly contested game. From there, however, the Dragons soared, dominated the second half.

Riley Bergstrom scored twice in the first quarter, and added an assist, as a part of the initial 4-0 run, and senior attack Bobby Maimaron scored all three of his goals in the opening half. Despite the Indians' initial comeback, the Dragons held onto an 8-5 lead at the half thanks to a late second quarter defensive stand.

To begin the third quarter, the Dragons took off, led by two tallies from Charlie Gans. Gans, along with Bergstrom and Nick LoConte, all scored two goals apiece overall.

“That’s a good sign that we can spread it around and get scoring from a bunch of different players,” said Dragons head coach Chris Sweet.


Sophomore Jack Wood also played a strong game, with a goal and an assist in the fourth quarter, including the final goal of the game. Once Duxbury got going in the second half, the Dragons had more stamina as a deeper team, and won several ground ball battles and prevented Indians’ clears.

The win is the second straight for Duxbury, and ninth of their last ten games. That only blemish came on Saturday against top ranked Lincoln-Sudbury, a 9-1 setback.

"Lincoln-Sudbury certainly exposed our weaknesses and what we need to work on," said Sweet. "Now it's about addressing that and playing well before the playoffs."

The Dragons were sharp on Wednesday with the combined scoring effort, and the offense picking up the defense and junior goalie Henry Weld at times. Weld did make a couple of key saves when Duxbury was a man down, or once down two players, in the second half.

“As it turns out, we needed those goals and couldn’t just sit on the lead,” Sweet said. “It’s always a battle when Duxbury plays Billerica. We knew we had to keep playing hard to get out of here with a win.”

Duxbury also found a way to compete with Billerica’s Dean Brooks at the faceoff dot, and the Indians struggled to clear the ball, awarding the Dragons more possessions, especially late in the contest.

Billerica drops its eighth contest of the season and its second straight after a 7-6 defeat against North Andover on Monday, and have lost four of its last six contests. The Indians will have a chance to rebound right away tomorrow against Tewksbury.

Duxbury has three games left this season, with a home contest against Plymouth South before traveling to Longmeadow to face the 15-3 Lancers and then a neutral site game against top New Hampshire program, Bishop Guertin.

As the Dragons remain the favorite in the Division 1 south bracket, they’ve continued to respond to challenges they have faced. The next time Duxbury would face Lincoln-Sudbury would be a hypothetical championship contest, but there is still a lot of lacrosse left to be played.