Prep lax pulls away from rival Xaverian
WESTWOOD >> Whenever St. John’s Prep and Xaverian congregate for a matchup in any sport, let alone lacrosse, chances are you are going to witness quite the battle.
On Tuesday however, the Eagles controlled the pace of play early on, and never looked back.
Sophomore Jake Vana registered his latest breakout performance with a hat trick, while junior Harlan Graber added a pair of goals to pace St. John’s Prep during a very impressive 12-4 victory over Catholic Conference rival Xaverian.
“We talked (Monday) about how this was a great way to see how much we’ve grown over the last month,” said St. John’s Prep coach John Pynchon. “We’ve played 12 games now and done a lot. They’ve worked incredibly hard… (Xaverian) pushed us really hard in April, and it was good to play a complete game.”
Vana opened the scoring for St. John’s Prep (10-1) just 2:54 into the game as he recovered his own rebound, then buried a shot to make it a 1-0 contest.
“We just took their strength away,” Vana said afterwards. “Made them play their weakness. All the credit goes to the coaches, and how they prepared us for this game.”
Once the second quarter got started, however, the Eagles found a second gear, outscoring Xaverian 5-2 in the frame. Vana capped the scoring with 5:41 to play in the stanza as the Eagles opened up an 8-2 edge at the half.
“Anytime we can win down here is huge,” Pynchon said. “Coming down here, in any sport, it’s a huge rivalry for us. Being able to come down here and get a win inconference is helping us work towards one of our outcome goals, which is winning the conference. That is really key for us. I think the next step for us is to just get healthy, get better.”
St. John’s Prep will face a stiff litmus test this upcoming Sunday, when the Eagles face an out-of-state juggernaut, La Salle (RI). The storied program has already defeated one of the tougher schools from the ranks of Eastern Massachusetts — BC High.
“I think (this win) will do a lot for us,” Vana said. “We came off of two tough losses to Acton-Boxboro and then Staples. Then we came off a win against Shrewsbury, and now, I think this game is really the one where we start clicking and getting ready to roll the rest of the season. Hopefully, into the playoffs.”