Blue Devils let lead slip away to Falcons
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NORTHAMPTON - From the beginning of Thursday's game, it was clear that all of Minnechaug's defenders knew to keep an eye on No. 20 for the Northampton boys lacrosse team.
The Falcons were focused on forcing someone other than Blue Devils senior attacker Charlie Cronin, recently named the program's second ever All-American, to beat them in the Western Massachusetts Division 2 Tournament quarterfinals at Northampton.
For a while, the Blue Devils were successful and held a five-goal lead in the fourth quarter, but Minnechaug stormed back to eventually tie the game with 26.4 seconds left in regulation and then win 9-8 in overtime.
"We've been having trouble playing four quarters of lacrosse all season," Cronin said. "We let down a little and let them get back in it."
Cronin, who set a program record with 80 goals in the regular season, was limited to a season-low one goal and faced two, three and four defenders each time he took possession anywhere near the goal.
The Falcons "have one of the best coaches (Russ Mooney) so I expected them to have something ready for us," Cronin said. "They did a nice job and made it hard on us, but it wasn't anything we shouldn't have been able to handle. We just let down our intensity and it cost us."
Northampton's other All-American was Tim Robbins in 2001, also a lacrosse player.
"It's a huge honor," said third-year coach Bill Metzger, who is the program's all-time leading scorer and was an All-American honorable mention in 1997. "Northampton lacrosse is one of the oldest programs around and we've only had one before this year. It says a lot about where the program is headed."
He added, "Charlie's a great player and a great kid. He's the type of kid who puts up those numbers and isn't a ball hog. For three years, he's done whatever he's been asked to do.
"This year, we needed him to initiate (the offense) more and that's what he did," Metzger added. "He does a great job playing off his teammates, but can initiate things as well. Just a great, great player."
Cronin credited his teammates for his record-breaking year.
"I got a lot of help. I had a lot of assisted goals," said Cronin, who will play lacrosse and study engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. "My teammates had a big part in everything."
And that led to Thursday and the program's first home tournament game, which looked like a win with 10 minutes, 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Justin Golec scored on a run from behind the goal for an 8-3 Northampton lead.
But Minnechaug dominated the rest of the way, scoring twice in the next 51 seconds to cut the deficit to 8-5.
"We made a lot of mental mistakes in the fourth quarter," Metzger said. "We didn't do the small things you need to do. Minnechaug is a great program and they are going to capitalize."
The Falcons cut the deficit to two when Reed McLean scored from outside and then made it 8-7 on a goal from Dan Costello in an extra-man opportunity with 4:40 left.
Still, the Blue Devils had the win in their possession, as first Cronin and then Colin Sawula ran out the clock for more than four minutes around two time-outs before Minnechaug forced a turnover with 37 seconds left.
Brian Lawler found Joseph Gorecki on the ensuing breakaway for the game-tying goal with 26.4 seconds left to force overtime.
Both teams had chances in the four-minute sudden-death period, but Northampton had two costly turnovers and Minnechaug scored the game-winner when Costello found Zach Smith on the right side and the senior fired a high shot just inside the crossbar.
"In overtime, we were too anxious," Metzger said. "These kids haven't played in a lot of big games like this. They were too concerned about trying to force their way to get that one goal instead of playing the way we usually do.
"To be a top program, you have to maintain a certain level of intensity throughout a game. We didn't do that."
Golec (two assists), Chris Warton (one assist) and Colin Sawula each scored two goals for the Blue Devils. Drew Gougeon added one goal and one assist, while Pat Harrington and Andy Kwon each had an assist.
Northampton goaltender Arron Mercier made 10 saves.
Minnechaug advances to play at No. 1 South Hadley (18-1) in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The game marked the end of the careers of Northampton seniors Roger Allcroft, Keanu Burke, Ray Chen, Devin Clark, Matt Parsons, Andrew Marshall, Cronin, Harrington, Mercier and Warton.
"This is a really special group of seniors to me," Metzger said. "I've had most of them for three years and they've done so much for the program.
"We had a ton of fans here for (Thursday's) game and there were kids running around with lacrosse sticks," he added. "That doesn't happen without this group. They made it exciting to want to play lacrosse at Northampton."
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com. Get high school updates delivered directly to your Facebook newsfeed at www.facebook.com/gazette.hs.
