By Michael Abelson (@ABELS0N)
BOSTON -There isn’t a team in the Commonwealth more comfortable being down than the Reading boys' lacrosse team.
The Rockets made it a habit to dig a hole this tournament, only to climb out and claim victory by the end of the game.
In the program’s first ever state title game it was no different. The Rockets were down three midway through the second quarter, before the tandem of Jack Geiger and Michael Tobin took over.
The Rockets scored 10 of the final 13 goals to defeat Concord-Carlisle 13-9 and claim the Division 2 state title at Nickerson Field.
“This is why you stay home, why you play for your town,” Tobin said. “For this. Everything pays off. When everyone’s sleeping you’re down at the turf working on your game. This is why you play for your town. All of this.”
Tobin and Geiger were electric. The Patriot defense had no answer for the pair as they took over the game. Tobin finished with five goals while Geiger added four. Tobin had a natural hat trick in less than five minutes during the third quarter.
Neither player had an assist on any of their goals as the Concord defense couldn’t find an answer for the UMass-bound duo. Tobin scored most of his goals dodging from up top while Geiger found success initiating from behind cage.
“Today they put poles on me and Michael unlike in the Scituate game where they were trying to shut us off more,” Geiger said. “They weren’t bringing a second guy too fast so me and Michael just tried to beat the first man. If no one came to us off that take the the shot, and me and Michael were both hitting the net today.”
Geiger scored the game’s first goal before Concord rattled off four in a row to take a commanding lead. The teams traded goals throughout the first half of the second until it was 6-3 Patriots.
Geiger had two more before halftime to make it 6-5 Patriots at the break.
Matt Moreau had two goals and an assist for Concord in the first half, but was shut down in the final 24 minutes. Junior Derek Stout had a hat trick for the Patriots.
“We had to guard [Moreau] better on the crease,” Reading coach Charlie Hardy said. “We let the crease guy get too many easy shots so we made the back guy slide in faster and quicker. On faceoffs we changed our positioning because they were killing us on faceoffs.”
The Reading defense held Concord without a goal the first 14:23 of the second half. The Rockets forced five turnovers in the second half while only giving the ball up once. Sophomore goalie Charlie Giuliotti had seven saves in the win.
Reading led 9-6 after three quarters
“I think we won a lot of faceoffs early,” Concord-Carlisle coach Tom Dalicandro said. “Possessed the ball, didn’t turn it over, got good shots in the first 16 minutes. After that they started winning faceoffs, we turned the ball over and Geiger and Tobin took over.”
Dan Cranitch and Dom Masucci each had a pair of goals for the Rockets as well.
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