Reigning state champs eliminate Clippers
La Salle’s depth proves to be too much in Division I semifinals
JOHNSON — The No. 4 Cumberland boys lacrosse team was bounced from the Division I semifinals by the undefeated reigning state champion La Salle Academy, 16-5, at Johnston’s Mayor Joseph Polisena Stadium Wednesday night..
It is the seventh consecutive season that La Salle is headed to the championship game and they hope to bring home seven titles in a row when they play No. 2 Moses Brown Saturday night at Brown.
La Salle got four goals from junior midfielder Nick Handy, three goals and an assist from sophomore attacker Brayden Edwards, two goals and two assists from senior mid Mason Matook and three goals from sophomore attacker Keegan Reilly.
Jack Andrews led Cumberland with three goals, which gave the junior over 30 goals on the season. Also scoring for the Clippers were senior Nick Dale and sophomore Aiden Clarey. Four of the five goals were unassisted and the one that was, came from junior defenseman Cole Hooper.
La Salle senior goaltender Nick DiMuccio stopped 11 shots on the night while Cumberland senior Evan Shaw blocked 14.
Despite the loss, Cumberland coach Scott Carpenter was content with the effort that his team gave against a very good La Salle team.
“I thought we played really well,” Carpenter said. “We put in a completely different defense over the past day or so to try to slow this team down, because we don’t have the depth to play them in a man to man defense.”
“He’s got probably fifty guys over there,” Carpenter said of La Salle coach Steve O’Donnell. “I think I run maybe 14 or 15 guys. So, we put in a zone. I thought it worked pretty well until we kind of ran out of gas a little bit. But, I thought we played a very strong game today. I was very happy with our effort.”
Cumberland finished the regular season at 6-8 and beat fifth-seed- ed Hendricken 13-12 in a thrilling overtime contest during the quarterfinal round where freshman Carter Delmore scored the game-winning goal after Hendricken’s Drew Chant tied the game with just 3.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
When Carpenter looks back on the successful season that the Clippers had, he will remember the adversity that his team overcame at the beginning of the season and how they were able to knock off the Hawks in the postseason.
“One of the things that I’m really happy about is we started the year off 0-4,” Carpenter said. “So, the fact that they battled back and fought their way back into a four seed is something I’m really proud in them for. Because its pretty easy at 0-4 to kind of see that daunting task in front of you and the mountain becomes really steep and to give up. But, the fact that they fought through that and worked their way back to a four spot and then beat Hendricken in the playoffs is impressive.”
With the win, La Salle improves to 15-0 on the season and 18-0 overall and moves on to play in the Championship game at Brown University’s Stevenson Field at 7 pm against two-seeded Moses Brown, who beat three-seeded Barrington, 12-11, in Wednesday’s second semifinal game.