By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High boys’ lacrosse team advanced to the Elite 8 on Tuesday with a hard-fought, 12-6 victory over East Longmeadow at Landrigan Field. The 8th-ranked Warriors will travel to No. 1 Medfield, the reigning Div. 3 state champions, tonight at 7 p.m. The winner will punch their ticket to the Final Four where they will play the winner of No. 4 Dracut vs. No. 5 Scituate.
The Warriors were hosting their second state tournament game in 24 hours on Tuesday night, having defeated No. 25 Ashland 11-5 on Monday night. After a back-and-forth first half against 9th-ranked East Longmeadow that ended with the game tied, 3-3, Wakefield found their legs in the second half, outscoring the Spartans 9-3, including a 4-0 4th quarter.
“We’ve worked really hard this year to try and get to this point,” said head coach Andy Wells. “Our goal before the season was to host a playoff game and we got to host two. To battle last night and come back tonight, back-to-back games and beat a top 10 team is huge. We wanted this group to be the ones who put Wakefield back on the map and they’ve taken that seriously.”
Wakefield’s attack was led by juniors Brady Zdanowicz (2 goals, 5 assists), Seamus Cable (4 goals) and sophomore Nick Metsis (4 goals, 1 assist).
The defense, led by juniors JP Casey and Tommy DeFeo, sophomore Jake Skowron and tough midfielders like seniors Ryan Metsis and Dan McHugh and juniors Cam Sartori and Christian DiFlorio, was terrific from start to finish and senior Zach Courtright collected 8 saves in the win. Sartori also had a strong game on face-offs to help the Warriors earn the victory.
“After losing in the first round last year, to win two home games like this, back-to-back — we’re exhausted but it’s just a great feeling for everyone,” said Cable, who
set the tone with a quick dodge and rip past the East Longmeadow goalie about two minutes in, getting Wakefield’s bench and fans into it early.
But East Longmeadow responded as both defenses locked in with DeFeo and Casey especially impressive for the home team. The Spartans ended up taking a 2-1 lead after one quarter.
The 2nd frame was much of the same. The intensity was elevated despite the lack of scoring and sophomore John Scarpello was soon able to even things with a goal about halfway through the quarter.
Another lefty laser from Cable gave Wakefield the lead and Courtright followed soon after with a huge save, squaring up a high jump but the Spartans found an equalizer in transition with 1:44 to go and the teams were even at the break.
With Wakefield’s fans wondering if the back-to-back games had exhausted their Warriors, the boys found another level in the third.
“I think we settled in a little bit,” said Wells. “We played well (Monday night) but offensively we were a little shaky. Tonight, we settled in and played our game, slowed it down, maintained possession and gave our defense time to rest which is why they were able to kill off all those penalties at the end of the game.”
The attack found their groove with 5 goals in the 3rd, 3 from Nick Metsis and one each from Zdanowicz and senior Kyle Clair.
Zdanowicz, who was asked to shoulder more of the offensive load in this one as opposed to focusing on face-offs and his typical all-around midfielder game, did a great job of setting up his teammates and orchestrating the attack. He drew the entire defense to one side of the field to set up the first goal of the 3rd, hitting Metsis on the weak side for an easy finish.
As the game took on the look of a possession war, DeFeo out-hustled a Spartan attacker for a new possession which Clair later finished off a catch-and-shoot from Zdanowicz to make it 5-3.
East Longmeadow came roaring back, scoring the next two to tie it.
As is the case with any great tournament game, the Warriors made it a roller-coaster, turning momentum with three in a row to end the quarter. Metsis had two impressive high-powered shots for goals and Zdanowicz fired home a low shot from up top with the offense stalled.
After East Longmeadow tied it at 5-5, the Warriors went on a 7-1 run to end the game.
“We battled through some adversity today and came out on top. It’s great to be a part of history; we’ve worked so hard all year and it’s just nice to see it pay off,” said Dan “The Clear Man” McHugh whose recovery after this one would no doubt include more ice on the arms after the slashes he took on clears out of the defensive zone.
“He’s used to it,” said a grinning JP Casey after the win.
Casey and the defense made it clear from the start that goals would be hard to come by for the Spartans. In the 4th, Casey, DeFeo, Skowron, McHugh and Ryan Metsis made sure that East Longmeadow wouldn’t get a glimmer of hope, even killing multiple man-down situations, slamming the door shut on a huge, Round of 16 win.
“We did well working together,” said Casey of the defensive unit. “We knew we had to sacrifice our bodies a little bit and block some shots and it all just clicked. We always feed off each other and tonight we just kept gaining momentum.
“We’ve all wanted this and worked towards having playoff games up at ‘Lando for the past few years so it feels awesome. We’re gonna celebrate and then get back to work and keep moving on. The job’s not finished.”
“We’re a blue collar team at the end of the day,” said McHugh, referencing how the Warriors dug deep to finish strong against a tough opponent on short rest. “We work hard — that’s how we’re built and teams aren’t used to that. We fight for every ground ball, every shot we try to get in front of and we’re all very close and communicate all the time so we can work as a unit.”
The Warriors will certainly need that classic Wakefield lacrosse effort and blue collar mentality tonight in Medfield against a program that has developed into a D3 powerhouse. Runners-up in 2023, Medfield finished the job last year and are looking to repeat as they will bring a 17-3 record into the game tonight against 16-3 Wakefield.
“Anyone has a chance to pull off an upset,” said Wells. “We’ve seen some really great teams this year especially with Reading and Winchester — Medfield has played those teams as well so I don’t think it’s anything we haven’t seen before. We’ll get ready, get a little rest after these two games and get back at it. Everyone’s excited for it.”
That certainly includes Wakefield’s leaders.
“We’ve been proving people wrong all year,” said Casey. “The mentality is to win.”
“Just go out there and try to have some fun,” added McHugh. “Everyone wants to be that upset, underdog team and our team is more than capable of being that. We can surprise anyone.”