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Skippers 9 Hanover 8

Date last updated 12:59 pm May 9th, 2008

Cohasset 9 – Hanover 8            The Cohasset boys lacrosse team raced out to a 9-3 lead on the road on Tuesday, but then barely held on against a scrappy Hanover team.  The Skippers needed a defensive stand (in their zone defense) of nearly two minutes at the end of the game to secure the victory.  Cohasset now has a record of 9-3 on the season.

            At the start of the game, it looked like Cohasset would dominate the contest easily.  Chuck Czerkawski won the first face off cleanly, scooped the ground ball, quickly passed to Will Wise who found Johnny Wade alone on the side of the crease for a perfect fast break goal.  Seconds later, Czerkawski again won the face-off clean and drove in alone for a hard, high-rising shot which found the cage.  Nate Porter made a great stop in goal to keep Hanover off the board.  Mike Grimm picked up a ground ball on the sideline, ran the length of the field, passed to Wise who assisted to Mark Flibotte who buried the shot high to low.  After less than three minutes, the Skippers had a three goal lead and their face break offense was humming.  However, Hanover scored the next two goals, one on a failed Cohasset clearing pass, to stay in the game.  After dodging from behind and drawing a slide, Grimm found Gordon Smith alone on the high crease for a quick stick goal and a 4-2 Cohasset lead after one period.

            The Skipper defense stood tall at the outset of the second quarter.  Porter made a stop at point blank range and Jake Cuneo, Anderson Lynner, Vin Curran and Dana Valentine pressured the Hanover offense whenever they entered the offensive zone.  Freshman Thomas Flibotte made a great strip on the man-down defense and clearing run to kill one penalty.  After still another Cohasset penalty, Cuneo checked the ball out of his attackman’s stick, made a long run through the middle of the field and found Grimm who quickly turned and passed to Mark Flibotte for a rare man-down goal.  Less than two minutes later, Flibotte again scored roll dodging from the side while Hanover had the man advantage.

            After an early Hanover score at the start of the second half, Cohasset went on a run to build its big lead.  Flibotte found Grimm alone making a back door cut and Grimm buried the shot.  PJ McCaw picked up a tough ground ball, found Wise up top who hit a streaking Flibotte for still another goal.  Then Grimm came out of a free-for-all scramble with the ball and assisted to Flibotte who beat the Hanover goalie to the short side for a six goal lead.  However, Cohasset’s seemingly insurmountable lead did not hold up very well against a game Hanover team which would not quit.  The Indians scored five unanswered goals to close out the game and force the Cohasset defense to make the big defensive stand at the end.  Fortunately, Porter, Cuneo, Anderson, Curran, Nick Lieberman, John Maher, Alec Livingstone, and Cliff Musto rose to the challenge.  Coach Curran was not pleased.  “We did not play for the full 48 minutes today and seemed to fall asleep particularly on offense in the final 15 minutes.  We were fortunate to get out with a win as these Hanover kids really pushed us the entire 2^nd half. Our shot selection and composure on offense needs to be a lot better as we go into a tough set of games gearing up for the end of the season. If we work and focus on our basics, we are a fine team. If not, lots of teams in the upcoming two weeks would really enjoy saying they beat the defending state champs. We’ll work hard to not give any team that opportunity. Our senior leaders need to step up as they did today to push every player to take care of their particular jobs”. Senior Mark Flibotte led Cohasset scoring with 5 goals and 1 assist.  Senior Mike Grimm had 1 goal and three assists and Will Wise had 3 assists and senior goalie Nate Porter had 11 saves. A big advantage for Cohasset again was at the face-off X where Senior Charlie Czerkawski won more than 65% of the crucial draws. The Skippers host a young Mashpee team on Wednesday and Weston on Thursday.