( May 16, 2024 ) The boys lacrosse team continues to roll, extending its winning streak to 10 games, with victories last week over Nauset 9-6, Archbishop Williams 16-2 and Old Rochester 14-2.
The Whalers completed a season sweep of Nauset last Thursday behind a dominant first half. They jumped ahead 4-1 after the first quarter and 6-2 at halftime. Fatigue began to set in for Nantucket in the second half, playing its fifth game in nine days.
Nauset pulled within two in the fourth quarter, thanks to a run of three unanswered goals. But Nolen Mosscrop flipped momentum back to Nantucket’s favor with a bad-angle shot that deflected off the post and into the back of the net with 3:02 to play.
The Warriors won the ensuing faceoff, but the Whalers quickly regained possession and killed off the remaining time, with Cole Chambers absorbing a flurry of stick checks over the final minute-plus.
“That last goal Nolen had, that was awesome,” coach Sam Aloisi said. “Then Colton killing that last minute- thirty, just taking a beating, that was awesome too.”
Chambers, Mosscrop and Colby O’Keefe tied for the team-high with two goals each. Arann Hanlon, Pat Carroll and Ryan Davis all scored once, and Jack Halik and Mike Culk ins each had an assist, with nine players in total securing at least one point for the balanced offensive attack.
Aloisi praised the defensive efforts of Culkins, Halik, Hunter Strojny and Owen Sullivan in front of goalie Jeremy Jenkinson, who made 11 saves in net.
Culkins and David Cirillo shared the face-off duties for Nantucket, effectively limiting the fast-break opportunities for Nauset’s Logan Poulin, a face-off specialist committed to play at the University of Vermont.
“It’s been a few years since we’ve swept these guys, and they were both great games. They could have gone either way,” Aloisi said. “They’re a good team. They have the best face-off guy on the Cape, so they’re never out of it. They shoot from anywhere. Fundamentally, they can pass.”
The Whalers rolled to a 16-2 win Saturday at Archbishop Williams with eight different goal-scorers. Hanlon, Mosscrop and Halik led the way on offense, each with a hat trick.
Colby O’Keefe and Kinnick King each scored twice, and Chambers, Ryan Davis and Jake Grant all had one goal.
Monday’s road win against Old Rochester was closer than the 14-2 final score would indicate.
Nantucket led by one in the closing seconds of the first quarter when Strojny fired the ball from the Whalers’ defensive end all the way to the crease, finding Hanlon who snatched the ball out of the air and dumped it into the net just before time expired.
“We needed that. We were only up 2-1 at that point, so that was big,” Aloisi said.
Hanlon scored a team-high five goals, including the first three of the game for Nantucket. Chambers scored three goals for a hat trick of his own, to go along with seven assists, accounting for over half of the Whalers’ goals.
Mosscrop, Carroll, O’Keefe, Halik, Davis and Andrick Mooney scored once, the first goal of Mooney’s varsity career.
Nantucket allowed just one goal in the first and third quarters, while the Whalers’ scoring was distributed relatively evenly with three goals in the first quarter, five in the second, three in the third and three in the fourth.
“We had a lot of shots in the first quarter, we just missed a bunch. Then the guys adjusted their shots and it went much better,” Aloisi said. “We possessed the ball for the large part of the game. David (Cirillo) did a really good job on faceoffs. Our defense was good as always.”
Nantucket, now 12-1 on the season, maintained its spot at the top of the MIAA Div. 4 power rankings in Tuesday’s latest update.
The Whalers were scheduled to make their final road trip of the regular season to face Abington Wednesday, too late for this edition of Sports. They wrap up with home games Saturday against Shrewsbury, Monday against Bishop Stang, Thursday against Old Rochester and next Saturday against Martha’s Vineyard.
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