Yesterday’s clash between Governor’s Academy and Noble and Greenough was billed up to be for the Independent School League boys lacrosse title. While both teams have games remaining and a win would only put the Bulldogs in position to share the crown with the defending champions, they would own the head-to-head tiebreaker for bragging rights.
For 47-plus minutes both squads slugged back-and-forth, with Nobles holding a slight edge in time of possession, shots, and most importantly on the scoreboard. But trying to run out the final 1:23 proved to be too much as Nobles committed a crease violation with 48 seconds left and Walpole native and University of Maryland-signee Mike Shakespeare sent the game to overtime with his fifth goal of the game, and Will Bryson provided the winner for the Red Dogs 1:58 into overtime to give Governor’s a stunning 10-9 win yesterday.
While Shakespeare may have been dead on about the game being a classic, it did not erase the disappointment of the one that got away on the Nobles sideline.
“I thought we had it won at the end of regulation, we turned the ball back over and you can’t give a team like that that many opportunities, especially late,” said Nobles coach Michael Herring. “They’ve got too many guys that can score the ball and too many guys that can turn the corner on you and we made that mistake. There was 30 seconds to go and we had the ball and we just didn’t finish the game.”
Defending a 9-8 lead, McCallum Foote gave Nobles (11-3, 10-2) a big boost poking the ball away from Greg Allis about 15 yards from the cage for a turnover with 1:23 remaining. The Bulldogs went the other way and set up their offense, but with goaltender Peter Metcalf out of the cage a shot was fired. Governor’s defender Colin Canty blocked it with his body and in the scrum for the loose ball, Nobles was whistled for a crease violation with 48.1 remaining.
The Red Dogs (15-0, 13-0) quickly went on the attack and Jeff Muscatello fed Shakespeare and the defense did not react in time as he found the back of the cage with 31.5 seconds left in regulation.
“Jeff made a great dodge, found me in the crease and I just buried it,” said Shakespeare.
Just 1:58 into the extra session, Allis found Bryson in space on the left side about 20 yards from the cage and whipped home the game-winner.
“(Jonah Fay) was covering me pretty tight the whole OT so I was pretty lucky to kind of mix it up quick and got the shot,” said Bryson.
Up until that final minute, it appeared that it was going to be the Shakespeare wearing Nobles’ blue and white uniform that was going to be the hero of the showdown as freshman Sean, capped his hat trick with an unassisted goal with 4:58 remaining for a 9-8 Bulldogs advantage.
“It was an exciting game, I thought I had it,” said the younger Shakespeare of the potential win. “(Leading) 9-8 with a minute to go, (he) comes back and scores to tie it.”
Younger Sean came away with the tally finishing off a feed from Michael Griffin. Giving his older brother a tap of the glove to the top of his helmet.
Nobles’ Shakespeare had put the hosts in front 5-4 with a shot into the top left corner of the cage from the right side with 4.5 seconds left in the first half.
The momentum of the late goal did not last long, however, as Blake Riley fired home the first of his two third quarter goals to tie the game at 5-5.
Tyler Parsons put Nobles back on top with his second of three goals, finishing off a goal in transition, T.J. Weyl got the ball ahead to Shakespeare and he quickly found Parsons at the crease for a 6-5 lead with 7:35 left in the third quarter.
Riley tied the game once again, starting a three-goal run to give Governor’s it’s first multi-goal lead of the day early in the fourth quarter. Marc White grabbed a ground ball and shoveled a pass to his left to Muscatello for a 7-6 lead with 15.6 seconds left in the third and Shakespeare gave the Red Dogs an 8-6 lead with 9:30 left.
Griffin helped Nobles tie the game at 8-8, assisting on goals by Nick Raffone and Parsons, beating his man behind the cage each time. He finished with a goal and five assists.
Rob Schlesinger was limited to a goal and an assist on Griffin’s man-up goal poking the ball free. He hit the pipe twice in the final two minutes of the opening half.
