Update after press time: Melrose defeats Woburn 15-2 (May 9)
Published May 9, 2025
By JENNIFER GENTILE
Tough schedule could result in postseason for Melrose
MELROSE—The Melrose High boy’s lacrosse team remain on target for a post season thanks in part to a strength of schedule that has benefitted their power rankings and made for competitive recent games. That includes a few close losses against tough Middlesex Large competition and a state champion team who edged Melrose this week.
Melrose (4-6) fell to Lexington in a 6-5 heartbreaker, followed by close losses to Shawsheen Tech and Arlington, making for a challenging week that was not without highlight.
Melrose traveled to Arlington (9-3) on April 28 and battled to an 8-5 loss, in a game that saw three goals from senior captain Nick Hitchman and two from Sam Moore. The Spy Ponders took an early lead, putting Melrose on their heels to play catch up most of the game. “I felt we stacked up well against Arlington,” said Melrose head coach Jeff Heater after the game. “We had a slow start on defense. We took a few too many penalties which didn’t help when we were already behind.”
Melrose defense settled in after the first quarter and was able to hold the Spy Ponders to 4 goals in the final three quarters. Notes the coach, “Anders Giuliano, Milo Mujalli, and CJ Cinella were our anchors at defensive end, with Noah Fay having 10 saves [in goalie].”
Two days later, Melrose hosted Lexington and battled to a one-goal loss, 6-5. Scoring for Melrose was Finn Alpers, who had 2 goals, and they relied on one goal each from Luke Dimilla, Robert Pino and Leo Kleinbub. Despite Melrose having a small lead most of the game, Lexington battled back for the victory, through otherwise solid Melrose defense. Notes coach Heater, “Lexington was another good matchup for us. We really like how we played defensively during this game however our offense struggled to put the ball in the right spot to capitalize on all the shots we took.”
And just this past Tuesday, Melrose hosted reigning vocational state champ Shawsheen Tech (12-1) and had an impressive effort, though it fell in the Ram’s favor. Melrose was locked at a 9-9 tie with just two minutes to go after goals from Finn Alpers, who led with 5, and Leo Kleinbub, who had 4. However, Shawsheen battled back late and scored three goals under the last three minutes of the game behind Niko Georgoulis, Quinn Carbone and Josh Baker to steal victory from Melrose, 12-9.
Despite a 0-3 week, Melrose remains in a healthy place in Power Rankings, currently ranked #25, and should they maintain that pace, they will likely return to the Div. 2 playoff field, a spot they are quite familiar with. Much of that has to do with the tough strength of schedule this spring. “Our overall strength of schedule is keeping us in the playoff picture,” says coach Heater. “To maintain a chance at a tourney birth we will need to get back to 500 by the end of the season. We’ve been doing a good job of limiting our unforced turnovers and would like us to be a little more efficient on our ground ball pickups.”
One thing he’d like to see is the team amp up their offensive output. The coach says, “Offensive movement and production will be our continued focus throughout the rest of the season. We know our defense will keep us in games, but we need to provide some additional goal scorers to make sure stay competitive and pull out the W’s.”
Check out Melrose this Friday evening as they take on the Woburn Tanners at home at 6:00 p.m.