Central Lacrosse team runner up in Bay State Games

Above: Central Region Lacrosse snagged a silver medal. (Image from Facebook)

Local media covered a regional, summer Lacrosse team heavily represented by Algonquin students. The Central Region team was a strong competitor in this summer’s Bay State Games.

After a shaky start, the Boys became strong competitors, taking second place in the tournament.

The Community Advocate writes:

There was a lot of anticipation leading up to the 2015 Bay State Games Boys Lacrosse Summer Tournament. Fourth-year Central Region Coach Bruno Nardone knew that a gold medal repeat would be tough with a team that featured younger, less seasoned players than the 2014 squad. However, with a lot of great lacrosse talent emerging from Central Massachusetts high schools, he expected a strong performance. . .

On the second day of competition, Central faced the North-East region team. Although Central led for much of the game, North-East continued to battle back, eventually scoring a tying goal with 11 seconds left on the clock.

Eager to avoid a sudden death overtime and to notch out a win, the Central squad laid out a plan. Algonquin Regional High School (ARHS) midfielder Thomas Polutchko* won the face-off after a brief scramble and found attackman Nolan Brady in front of the goal for a shot that left his stick a fraction of a second before the final buzzer went off. The ball found the back of the net, and the Central squad had good reason to rush the field for a celebration. In addition to helping with seeding, the hard fought victory seemed to galvanize them as a team. . .

Click here for their full story. To enlarge team photo, click thumbnail.

*GoLocalWorcester also covered the tournament:

The Defense showed amazing stamina throughout the tournament with five players all from Algonquin fending off opponents.  Playing every minute of every game at close Defense were Jake Kelleher, Justin Leva, and Graham Roche.*

*Thomas Polutchko and Graham Roche were among the four Southborough players from the roster, along with Tommy Ackil, Davis Lemieux.

Congrats to the silver medalists!