H.S. BOYS LACROSSE: King Philip fends off Bishop Feehan in battle of heavyweights

“I wasn’t surprised. They’re a well-coached club and a very talented club and I knew they were going to come back, it was just a matter of time,” King Philip head coach Hal Bean said. “They don’t have quit in them, but neither do we.”

The Shamrocks, who got as close as a goal down in the final 12 minutes of play, started their run early, getting a goal from Evan Paturzo just under a minute into the second half. Nick Yanchuk followed over five minutes later to make it 10-7, and less than a minute after Yanchuk’s goal Theo Stamatel scored to make it a 10-8 deficit.

After forcing a turnover in the defensive end, the Shamrocks came down to make it 10-9 on a shot from Andrew Palma with 2:19 to go in the quarter, and then tied it at the 1:35 mark on a goal from Brady Vitelli.

“The one thing we always talk about is that there are no five-point shots in lacrosse,” Bishop Feehan head coach Tom Sheerin said. “You have to make one stop and score one goal, one at a time. We had the first one, got a little momentum from the bench, and it really helped change the tide in the third quarter. If we had played the whole game like that, it probably would have been a different outcome.”

The Warriors’ response was two goals in rapid succession, both credited to Hayden Schmitz in a 30-second span to give King Philip a two-goal lead again. The Shamrocks (10-7) had a goal from Yanchuk in the final quarter, but scores by Mason Thompson and Pat Weibelen put the game away.

The Warriors (11-5) opened the game on a 5-0 run in the opening seven minutes. The defense was strong for King Philip, which forced the ball away from the net and onto the ground for ground balls. Bean said the need to replicate that defense in the second half was the only way to keep the Shamrocks from going on the run they had.

“It’s going to come, you’ve got to be ready for it and we’ve got to play the defense we did in the first half,” Bean said. “Keep working, working hard and getting the ball in the back of the net.”

Bean was pleased with the result, citing a big tilt with Canton coming up on Monday as the next thing to focus on for the Warriors. Schmitz led King Philip’s scoring with four goals while Noah Minkwitz and Donovan DVellis scored three times each. DeVellis also had a team-high four assists.

“That was a great battle between two really good teams,” Bean said. “They had a lot of fun out there. I’m proud of both teams.”

The Shamrocks were led by Brady Vitelli’s five goals while Stamatel and Yanchuk had two each.

“I hate to say ‘good loss.’ I never liked to use that term. A loss is a loss,” Sheerin said. “We did a lot of really good things and there’s some things we can build off of. But it’s one of those things where we can’t let them get out ahead that big, that early, and have to claw our way out of the hole and get on top.”

Next time out for Feehan will be on Friday when it hosts Scituate.