Clippers lock it down: Norwell boys lacrosse muffles Pope Francis to gain D3 semifinals

NORWELL – Time literally stood still on Saturday afternoon, at least on the scoreboard at Norwell High's Clipper Community Complex. A lighting delay of almost an hour left the score (4-3 home team) and time (7:21 remaining in the second quarter) frozen.

For a while, both offenses appeared to be stuck, too.

The Division 3 boys lacrosse quarterfinal featured exactly one goal in the second quarter – that by Norwell's Austin Shea just 15 seconds before halftime.

Eventually, the Clippers hit their stride offensively, thanks to Nolan Petrucelli's natural hat trick in the third quarter. But the visiting Cardinals of Pope Francis never did get untracked, going scoreless for almost 33 minutes of game action. The defense that was so instrumental in Norwell's run to its first-ever state championship last spring was front and center again in this one as the Clippers pulled away in the second half for a 12-6 victory that sends them into the state semifinals.

"They had a bit more juice than we had today," Pope Francis co-coach John Sheehan said.

Top-seeded Norwell (17-3) will play the winner of Sunday's quarterfinal between No. 4 Grafton (19-1) and No. 5 Medfield (14-6). The Clippers beat Medfield, 11-3, in last year's title game with – you guessed it – a smothering defensive performance.

"The defense has been the cornerstone all year, anchored by Ryan Daly in goal, who's done a great job," Norwell coach Josh Stolp said. "They just tighten up and don't give a lot of looks to people."

Dry spell did in Cardinals

No. 8 Pope Francis (15-4) went toe to toe with Norwell early. When Zachary Buffone and Gage Sperlonga scored less than a minute apart, the Cardinals had forged a 3-3 tie. That was it for the offense for a long, long time, though.

Sperlonga's tying goal came with 4:50 left in the first quarter. Pope Francis didn't score again until Conor Ondrick (hat trick) struck with 8:04 remaining in the game to make it 11-4. In between, the Clippers went on an 8-0 run.

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"The defense did a great job at that point and really started stepping up," Stolp said. "We knew their offense was really good and had two good attackmen who could finish in tight. But our defense did a great job of collapsing. They just kept staying after it, rotating on the back side. It was an unbelievable performance on their part."

"Our coach gave us a great rundown, on film and in practice," said senior midfielder Dylan McGuirk. "We worked on this (defensive gameplan) for a long time in terms of scouting this team. I thought everyone on defense did perfect. We were focusing on their two best players – 23 (Sperlonga, who scored twice) and 3 (Richard Roy) – the whole game. I thought Charlie Booras did a phenomenal job on 23. Will (Higgins) did an amazing job on 3. Everybody played great."

"Everything we did in practice (worked)," agreed junior defender Will Morse. "We practiced for their two-man game. We had our slide packages set up. Everyone was just doing their job. We knew we were going to have to win with our defense. We did it last year. That was our main focus."

Morse also pointed to the Clippers' film work as a key, saying, "I feel like we play our best when we get to watch teams on film and really scout them, which you don't always get to do in the regular season. When it comes playoff time, that's when we can play our best."

Petrucelli answered the call

Petrucelli had perhaps his best game of the season. It was certainly his best-timed performance. The senior attack scored a game-high five goals to power an offense that was slow to get started.

After Pope Francis tied the game at 3-3, Petrucelli put the Clippers back in front, 4-3, with 3:09 left in the first quarter. Shea's goal (he had a hat trick) in the final minute of the second quarter gave Norwell a 5-3 lead at the break before Petrucelli took over in the third, netting three straight goals in the span of 2:42 to push the advantage to 8-3.

"I love it!" Morse said of the outburst.

"What a game," Dylan McGuirk agreed. "I'm proud of him." Asked if Petrucelli is usually a big scorer, McGuirk said, "Not all the time, but today he showed up in the moments that he needed to."

"He's been sort of up and down sometimes this year," Stolp said of Petrucelli. "But when he's on, he's on. And he was really feeling it (today). The confidence was there and he was just lighting it up. It was great."

Petrucelli chalked up his performance to good ball movement. "I was getting open, we were moving the ball fast and when I was open I was just shooting it," he said. "We all moved the ball faster (in the third quarter than in the second), which let the back-side (attacker) get open. That was me."

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Tim Ward capped Norwell's four-goal third quarter by scoring with 5:20 left.

"In the third quarter, (Pope Francis) was in their zone and we just settled into it," Stolp said. "We got a little more comfortable seeing the seams. Zones are always tough like that; it takes a few minutes to really break it down. But they started to get a feel for it and do a better job of it."

Oliver Rice, Jake McGuirk and Dylan McGuirk also scored for Norwell. The Clippers could have had more, if not for a brilliant game by Pope Francis sophomore goalie Matt Davis.

"He's tremendous," Sheehan said. "He's one of the top (goalies) in the state, we think. He keeps us in every game."

By the numbers

Plus-32: Norwell's goal differential across the first two playoff rounds. The Clippers had blitzed No. 32 Bishop Stang, 19-1, and No. 17 Shawsheen Valley, 21-7, before having to work a lot harder in this one. Said Stolp: "It's nice to get a close game but then open it up (late) so the heart can relax a little bit as the game goes on."

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3: Losses by the Clippers this season. All of them would qualify as quality defeats as they came against a pair of Division 1 teams – Xaverian (seeded No. 7) and Lincoln-Sudbury (seeded No. 6) – plus Cohasset, the top seed in Division 4. Those losses came by a combined total of five goals. "I'm super grateful that our coach is able to set us up with some good competition," Morse said. "I feel like the team really gets to put themselves to the test (with those matchups). We definitely take all those losses and try to learn from them."

2: Wins needed for Norwell to pull off the repeat. The Clippers lost all-time leading scorer Griffin Vetrano to graduation but return key pieces like Daly, Shea and faceoff standout John Mullen, among others. "At this point it's anybody's game on any day," Stolp said of the chances of winning it all again. "So, it's really about who shows up. If the defense plays like they have been, that goes a long way."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Norwell boys lacrosse clamps down defensively in Div. 3 playoff win