By Jake Levin @JakeLevin09
COHASSET—BC High, and new head coach Marcus Craigwell, began their season on Tuesday night in similar fashion to how their 2018 D1 State Championship season ended: with a win.
Despite a new leader and a new roster makeup, the top-ranked Eagles, playing their first game of the season in defense of their Division 1 title, grinded out a 9-6 win over No. 9 Cohasset, last year’s Division 3 state champions.
Craigwell, the former head coach at Wayland, took over for former head coach Steve Lydon following his departure to prepare to coach England’s national lacrosse team, admitted after the game that he was itching to take to the field in a game that counted just as much as his players were. After building up a 7-2 halftime edge, it’s clear his team shared the bottled-up energy from the preseason.
“This win gives them confidence that all the hard work we put in is going to pay off,” Craigwell said.
Senior Chi Chi Price scored three goals – all in the first quarter – for the Eagles. He capitalized off a miscommunication in the back end for Cohasset, hitting a vacant net from about 25 yards out to break open the scoring some 1:47 in.
(l-r): BC Hugh’s Jamie Horton, Carter Ford, and Chi Chi Price.
“It was absolutely insane,” Price said of finally taking to the field. “Coming out here and playing with these guys for the first time is awesome. I know we had a great scrimmage against North Andover, but the whole team was fired up. The locker room was bumping in the beginning and everyone’s ready to get going.”
Juniors Aidan Carroll and Zach Swanson also scored in the first quarter for BC High, which led for the duration following Carroll’s man-up tally 4:26 in to break a 1-1 tie.
Following an Aidan Carroll man-up goal to take lead back, Zach Swanson scoops up GB and scores for 3-1 BCH lead over Cohasset, 8:31 1Q @bostonlaxnet @masspreps pic.twitter.com/7TaHFiLQYY
— Jake Levin (@JakeLevin09) April 2, 2019
After junior Patrick Dionisio scored off a feed from Jake Sullivan just 8 seconds into the second quarter for Cohasset, Eagles’ junior Carter Ford scored the only remaining goals of the quarter – once 4:39 in, the other at the buzzer to deflate a Skipper’s team which had seemingly solved BC High’s attack.
But after Swanson scored his second goal of the game 30 seconds into the third quarter, Cohasset proceeded to lock the Eagles down for a span of 19 minutes and 17 seconds to keep itself well within striking distance.
“I would say our shot selection could have been better,” Craigwell said of BC High’s scoring drought. “We had our looks, but they weren’t falling. High school boys just want to get the ball in the back of the net instead of letting the offense work for itself. I think we were too go-go-go.”
“I think we got a little bit overwhelmed at times, we went a little faster-paced than we wanted to,” Ford said. “We made a lot of careless errors, but it’s definitely something we can clean up.”
The trouble for the Skippers was that for as well as netminder Mason Fitzgerald played in the second half, his counterpart for the Eagles, Jamie Horton, was just as sharp.
Final: BC High 9, Cohasset 6. Here’s save No. 12 for Horton. Eagles won opener under Marcus Craigwell, Skippers drop to 2-1 @masspreps @bostonlaxnet @GlobeSchools pic.twitter.com/Kq1peqcrEY
— Jake Levin (@JakeLevin09) April 2, 2019
Making his first varsity start following the graduation of Patrick O’Driscoll, the sophomore turned aside 12 Cohasset shots, showing rare poise for someone his age, according to Craigwell.
Fifth save of the game for BCH goaltender Jamie Horton @masspreps @bostonlaxnet pic.twitter.com/64yYlKska5
— Jake Levin (@JakeLevin09) April 2, 2019
“He got the nod and he’s been phenomenal. He had a great off-season,” Craigwell said of Horton. “We have two good goalies, Horton and [Jack] Gallagher. We felt like Horton was super composed for the class he’s in, but he’s ready for the competition.”
After sophomore Carter Rice snapped BC High’s scoring dilemma 7:47 into the fourth, Dionisio and senior Chris Longo got two goals back for Cohasset. But the Skippers would get no closer, suffering their first loss of the season following decisive wins over Scituate and Bridgewater-Raynham.
“I think we had to catch up to where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing and starting to adjust,” Cohasset coach James Beaudoin said. “We’ve got the and we’re going to learn from it.”
Save for Mason Fitzgerald, keeping Cohasset within six at 8-2. Zach Swanson scored 30 seconds into 3Q for BCH @masspreps @bostonlaxnet pic.twitter.com/0XCP3f067Y
— Jake Levin (@JakeLevin09) April 2, 2019
Game Statistics
BC High 5 2 1 1 – 9
Cohasset 1 1 1 3 – 6
BC High
Chi Chi Price – 3 goals
Zach Swanson – 2 goals, 1 assist
Carter Ford – 2 goals
Carter Rice – 1 goal
Aidan Carroll – 1 goal
Jamie Horton – 12 saves
Cohasset
Patrick Dionisio – 2 goals, 1 assist
Tucker Fulton – 2 goals
Jack Fitzpatrick – 1 goal
Chris Longo – 1 goal
Mason Fitzgerald – 5 saves
Faceoff-X: Cohasset 10, BC High 9
