FOXBORO — In a chippy, penalty-plagued game, the Bishop Feehan High boys lacrosse team came out on top of Foxboro High 13-7 last Thursday afternoon.
With emotions getting the best of both sides at times, particularly late in the second half, the Shamrocks held their cool after entering halftime down 4-3. The Shamrocks then pulled even and played a back-and-forth game with the Warriors before two goals in the final five minutes put the Shamrocks up 7-5.
A goal by Brendan McNeil off a feed from Nick Yanchuk gave Feehan the lead with 4:27 to go in the third and Feehan added an insurance goal at 2:11 off a score from Yanchuk.
A man-up score from Yanchuk in the fourth with 10:37 to go gave the Shamrocks needed insurance, and another man-up score from Yanchuk made it 9-5. The Warriors showed late life despite penalties, scoring with 9:58 to go off the stick of Evan Viera with a flag going up as he scored.
Using the man advantage to their benefit following the goal, Foxboro’s Tony Sulham scored roughly 30 seconds later to bring the difference back to two at 9-7. It was the closest Foxboro got to bringing it even as the Shamrocks worked to slow the pace of the game down and patiently find an opening.
Openings came at 8:26 on a Theo Stamatel score and at 4:38 from a Theo Stamatel goal, where he collected a loose ball from an Adam Addeche save and put it over him to score. Ahead 11-7, Foxboro committed a two-minute locked-in penalty almost immediately off the faceoff to give Feehan a chance to run away with the game.
Evan Paturzo scored a man-up goal for the Shamrocks, and at even strength with under two minutes to go, and Stamatel added another before the final whistle.
The changes in tempos worked in Feehan’s favor, utilizing it while it was up to prevent Foxboro from regaining any control of the game, Bishop Feehan head coach Tom Sheerin said.
“We were hoping we would be up, and (Foxboro head coach Matt Noone) is a good coach and they’ve got some good players on that team,” Sheerin said. “We were hoping we’d get the opportunity to be up and then slow things down. They can’t score if they don’t have the ball.”
Penalties got the best of both sides, and words were exchanged much of the game among players to get under one another’s skin.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and when you see a team that (gets emotional) from time to time, that’s the biggest problem for a team of teenage boys is to bring them back in and try not to fall into the trap,” Sheerin said. “We consistently stayed in their ears the entire game. Don’t fall into it, let them put up a man. There were a couple of times we had to reel them back in but for the most part they held their temper and held their tongues and did a good job.”
Yanchuk led in scoring with four goals for the Shamrocks. Theo Stamatel scored three goals while Evan Paturzo, Connor Davine, Andrew Palma and McNeil each scored once.
“Typically our attack has been the mainstay,” Sheerin said. “We had a great opportunity to get the midfielders to score a bunch. It always helps the offense once the attack softens the defense and the midfielders can take advantage. It fell into place for us.”
Foxboro had four goals by Connor Noone, two from Tony Sulham and one from Evan Viera. Adam Addeche stopped 15 shots in net for the Warriors.
Foxboro (7-9), which lost to Sharon 11-4 on Monday, will next host Oliver Ames next Monday.