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Sports

Lexington Can't Hold Off Xaverian in Boys Lacrosse

Visiting Hawks erase four-goal deficit at halftime to complete a 6-5 comeback victory in overtime.

The Lexington High School boys’ lacrosse team let slip a halftime lead and couldn’t stop from completing a furious second-half comeback on Tuesday morning.

Lexington led the non-league, vacation week matinee by four goals at the break. But a second-half collapse led to five unanswered goals, the last of which was an overtime dagger that gave Xaverian a 6-5 victory at Lincoln Field.

It was the first loss of the season for the Minutemen, who now stand at 6-1.

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“We kind of lost our composure in the fourth quarter, late in the game, and gave Xaverian some extra opportunities, some extra-man opportunities and so forth,” coach Dave Walsh said hours later, still upset over the loss. “All-in-all it was a pretty disastrous second half for us.”

Xaverian put Lexington away just 30 seconds into the overtime period. The Minutemen were flagged for a conduct foul at the end of regulation, giving the visitors possession of the ball to begin the extra session. And the opportunity wasn’t wasted.

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The Hawks took the ball down the field to begin the overtime and scored the game-winner before a mere 30 seconds ticked off the clock.

“Xaverian chipped away and we never even had a chance in the overtime,” Walsh said.

At halftime, Walsh said the Minutemen had it all going for them. They led 5-1, were winning faceoffs and were holding the Hawks’ potent transition offense in check. That would soon change.

Lexington had its chances in the second half, but couldn’t convert any as it failed to put the ball in the net.

The same couldn’t be said of Xaverian, as the Hawks peppered Minutemen goalie Shane Foley (15 saves), who played well despite the loss. He now has 39 saves in his team’s past two games, Walsh said.

On offense, senior attackman David Nardella had two goals and an assist, while sophomore attackman Eli Brick, senior midfielder Conor Henrie and senior attackman Andrew Mazur added a goal apiece. Walsh said Geoff Genova performed well on faceoffs.

“The strength of our team is really our defense,” Walsh said. “We have yet to get our offense clicking, but we did create some opportunities that, in the second half, we really didn’t take advantage of.”

The Minutemen will try to bounce back against another tough opponent, St. John’s Prep of Danvers. The Minutemen travel to the North Shore on Saturday.

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