By Nate Weitzer

MEDFIELD – By sweeping rival Dover-Sherborn away with an avalanche of goals in the second half of Saturday’s rivalry matchup, Medfield delivered a message to the competition ahead of the Division 2 state tournament.

The Warriors coasted to a 17-7 victory behind dominant faceoff play from T.J. Casey, a balanced attack led by Rob Spaeth, and excellent defense led by James Wilder to confirm their status as a strong favorite in the upcoming Division 2 Central/East State Sectional and State Tournament.

While Medfield executed on both ends, the spark for success was Casey, a Umass-bound junior who won 24-of-28 draws at the Faceoff X, including 11-of-12 faceoffs in the second half.

“We’ve had a tradition of good faceoff guys, but TJ is doing a great job giving us possession and our offense is putting the ball in the back of the net,” said Medfield coach John Isaf. “The only time we’ve been held under 10 goals was the first game with [D-S], so we wanted to make sure the offense played better this time around.”

Dover-Sherborn (11-2) and Medfield (12-1) were tied four times over the opening 16 minutes, including at 2-2 when Raiders goalie Standish Carothers sprinted down the field in the final minutes to find Pierce Gregory for a buzzer-beater to end the first frame.

But Medfield (12-1) took control midway through the second. Rob Spaeth – who is headed to St. Joe’s (Pa.) – was a sniper from the weakside with five goals in the first half and Casey added the final goal of the second quarter following some quality defense. With Wilder containing Gregory, and backup goalies Joe Bethony and Bobby Spence combining for 12 saves in the absence of starter Jake Grenon (injured), the Warriors were able to run a patient offense and pull away with a 9-1 run down the stretch.

“We knew we wanted payback,” Spaeth said about the rematch. “We came out, practiced hard all week, came in today ready to go, fired up.”

“[Controlling possession] gives us time to slow it down, really run the game how we want to play it, set it up and do what we want to do.”

Loyola commit Luke Murphy scored four goals, Sam Hedges, Jack Sullivan, Connor Nee, and Caleb Lawson all tallied multiple points, and Cole Cloney, Austin Verge, Chris Bethoney, and Mike Vachon all added highlight goals during Medfield’s impressive second half.

“[The Raiders] defense played a lot in the second half, and we certainly played smarter,” said Isaf. “[We had] fewer unforced turnovers in the second half, and we also kind of looked for the extra pass a little more and made a couple of adjustments. The bottom line is the guys just played hard and played unselfishly and played more mistake-free lacrosse in the second half.”

KEY STATS

Medfield

Rob Spaeth – 6 Goals, 3 assists

Luke Murphy – 4 Goals

Caleb Lawson – 1 Goal, 1 assist

Sam Hedges – 1 Goal, 1 assist

Chris Bethoney – 1 Goal

T.J. Casey – 1 Goal

Cole Cloney – 1 Goal

Mike Vachon – 1 Goal

Austin Verge – 1 Goal

Jack Sullivan – 3 assists

Connor Nee – 2 Assists

Joe Bethony – 12 saves

Bobby Spence – 4 saves

Faceoffs: T.J. Casey – 24-for-28

Dover-Sherborn

Ben Teich – 2 Goals

Pierce Gregory – 1 Goal, 1 assist

Ford Pegram – 1 Goal

Billy Rooney – 1 Goal

Eli Kaplan – 1 Goal

Standish Carothers  – 9 saves, 1 assist

GAME CLIPS

 



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