YARMOUTH — North Yarmouth Academy boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Gerrity has been seeking a complete-game effort from his team.
The Panthers produced just that on Monday and as a result, earned a pivotal victory.
NYA, which reached the Class C state game in 2022, raced to a 5-0 lead after one quarter and got four goals apiece from Zach Leinwand and Brayden Warde, as well as 15 saves from goalie Jack Curtis, and went to beat Class B contender Greely, 12-6.
“Today was great,” Gerrity said. “Everybody got involved in the offense and the defense. We were clicking. We’ve been talking about playing 48 minutes and we feel like if it wasn’t a full 48, we were pretty close today.”
Brothers Wyatt Thomas and Gavin Thomas scored early goals to get the Panthers (4-3) going, then Leinwand and Warde sandwiched their first goals around another from James Brogan-Provencher to put the Rangers (3-5) in an early hole.
“We knew (NYA) was a hot-starting team and they beat us with hustle and effort from the beginning,” said Greely Coach Mike Storey. “They played really well. Their goaltending was great and their defense was sharp.”
Brogan-Provencher added another goal to start the second quarter before the Rangers finally generated some offense, getting goals from Bez Mendelsohn and Lukas Cook, but with a minute to go before halftime, a Greely turnover led to Leinwand setting up Warde for a goal.
The 100th of his career.
“I knew I was close (to 100),” said Warde, who plans to play next year at Connecticut College. “I’m really happy that I could get it today and we could come out on top.”
Greely twice drew within four goals in the third quarter, the second time at 8-4, then the Rangers had 30 seconds of a 6-on-4 advantage, but Curtis twice saved shots from Matt Kennedy.
“That was super big to kill that (6-on-4),” said Curtis, a senior. “Whenever we kill penalties, it’s so much fun. The shooters get confident and I just have to stand on my head and make those saves.”
Late in the quarter, Leinwand and Warde added goals and while Greely cut the deficit to 10-6 midway through the final quarter, on a goal from Mendelsohn, Warde and Leinwand each scored their fourth goals to put it away.
“We’re happy with our effort today as a team and I think we battled really hard,” said Warde. “We’re getting close to where we need to be.”
The Rangers got two goals apiece from Kennedy and Mendelsohn and goalie Sam Dudek made a dozen saves, but their two-game win streak was snapped.
“You always want to keep building in the right direction,” Storey said. “Today wasn’t our best day. We told the guys we’ve had two bad days out of 40, but this is something we can learn from and build from. There’s going to be ups and downs with a young team.”
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