FALMOUTH – The way the Falmouth players and coaches talked after the boys’ lacrosse game Wednesday night against Cape Elizabeth, you would have thought the Yachtsmen lost.
In fact, Mitch Tapley and Charlie Fay each had five goals and two assists as the Yachtsmen held off the Capers for an important 14-12 victory in a Western Class B game.
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“The first half was great and the second half basically went down the drain,” Falmouth middie Willy Sipperly said. “We tried to possess the ball as much as we could and we took some lousy shots, I guess.”
“We came out with an intensity that we’ve really never had before,” Tapley said. “We took it to them, (then) we let a foot off the gas a little bit and they came back. We stopped playing how we were playing and that’s not acceptable.”
Sounds like Falmouth blew it, doesn’t it?
But it definitely was a game of two very different halves.
“We didn’t play all that well in the beginning of the game, and they played very well in the beginning of the game,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Ben Raymond said. “I would say it was more of what they were doing and less of what we were doing poorly.”
Falmouth, the defending state champion, rattled off the first seven goals and held a 9-2 halftime lead.
“You’ve got to give (Cape) credit for sticking in there,” Falmouth Coach Mike LeBel said. “Down 9-2, they could have easily packed it in. I knew they wouldn’t, and I knew it would be a challenge, and I think at the end there we were just kind of hanging on, and it can’t be like that. We can’t be backing up and we can’t have them dictating the game.”
The Yachtsmen (8-1) might have sewn up home-field advantage for the regional tournament. It was the first loss for Cape Elizabeth, which opened the season April 21 with an 8-6 victory against Falmouth at Hannaford Field.
The teams expect to play each other a third time this season during next month’s regional tournament.
“We will change things, absolutely,” Raymond said. “We’ve got other things we’ll show on defense at a later date. We didn’t give them a glimpse of everything tonight, just in case we may see them later on.”
The Capers (7-1) held a 34-23 edge in shots, but the Yachtsmen won 14 of 24 faceoffs and held a 25-19 edge in groundballs.
Hunter Lafond scored two goals for Falmouth, and Brad Gilbert and Sipperly each scored one.
Justin Cary scored four goals for the Capers, as did Alex Burnick, whose goal with 13.7 seconds left accounted for the final margin. Tim Bottomley, Griffin Thoreck, Brian Brett and Tim Lavallee also scored for the Capers.
Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:
pbetit@pressherald.com
Twitter: PaulBetitPPH
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