Westwood High Boys' Lacrosse Drops Regular Season Finale

All it took was one bad quarter to do in the Westwood Wolverines’ boys’ lacrosse team. It was barely seven minutes into the game and the Wolverines found themselves down 4-0 to the Hopkinton Hillers.

With a strong offensive showing from the Hillers, the Wolverines (10-8) dropped their regular season finale 8-5 to the Hillers (11-8) on Senior Day Monday night.

From the start it was evident that the duo of attacker Phil Pichel and midfielder Andrew Johnson were going to cause trouble for the Wolverines all night. Johnson scored after recovering a ground ball off the draw only 16 seconds into the game, while Pichel picked up two quick more goals including a score while a man up. Johnson received the assists on both Pichel goals.

“He plays both ways offense and defends. He does it all for us out there,” Hopkinton coach Justin O'Leary said about Johnson.

Johnson picked up another goal early in the second quarter and three more assists in the second half to help lock up the Hillers win.

“I don’t think it was necessarily the goals, we didn’t really play well tonight," said Westwood head coach Steve McManus. "We had a tough night passing and catching and Hopkinton played really well.”

Down 4-0 with less than five minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Wolverines cut the lead in half when Christian Heidelberger scored from 10 yards away and Rob Sleight scored off a pass from Casey McQuillan behind the net with 50 seconds left in the opening period.

With the lead cut to two, the Hillers got it back up to three with 1:07 left in the half when Bryan Doyle extended the lead with Johnson getting the assists.

A pair of goals from Pichel in the third and fourth quarters with the assist from Johnson gave the Hillers enough prevent a Westwood comeback. Backed by a strong defense, Hopkinton goalie Steve Kerr stopped 15 shots on goal in the winning effort.

“He (Kerr) was obviously seeing the ball well tonight," O'Leary said. "He was really nice on the outlets too kicking it out. Just really went well.”

Sleight picked up another goal early in the fourth quarter while Jake Drew scored from the left to add a pair of goals to Westwood’s total.

Prior to the game, the Wolverines took the time to recognize the team’s 13 graduating seniors. Despite the loss, McManus praised his senior players for their hard work and commitment to the team.

“The seniors really set the tone for how the season goes," McManus said. "It’s been nice to have such a large group of guys who have come in and given their all for the past couple of years.”

McManus also took the time after the game to praise assistant coaches Dave Fredrickson and Reece McQuillan for their contributions to the program this season.

Both the Wolverines and Hillers will now wait to see where they will be seeded when the MIAA releases their tournament pairings May 25. Hopkinton will compete in the Division 2 East tournament while Westwood will be in D3 East.