Mount Greylock Boys Continue to Improve
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock boys lacrosse team wrapped up a long week by making short work of Taconic on Saturday afternoon.
Michael McCormack scored nine goals to lead the Mounties to a 23-2 win in a game interrupted by a passing thunderstorm in the first quarter.
It was the fourth win in six days and third in three days for the Mounties (13-1), who were up 11-0 after one quarter and never looked back.
Saturday's win was typical of the kind of games Mount Greylock has played this year in Berkshire County, which made Friday's 11-10 win over East Longmeadow that much more important.
"That was huge," Mount Greylock coach Brandon Asplundh said. "It was a lot of fun. Obviously, we haven't played a lot of really close games so far, so it was extremely fun.
"We needed some experience in a big game, and we did a great job and were able to come out on top."
On Saturday, McCormack had three goals and the Mounties had a 7-0 lead before the game was eight minutes old. That is when a lightning flash forced the teams to seek shelter for about 20 minutes. After playing the rest of the first quarter in light rain, the sky cleared up.
The Mount Greylock offense did not ease up.
McCormack scored three times early in the second quarter to help put the game out of reach -- adding to his Western Mass-best point total of 127 (91 goals, 36 assists).
His final goal of Saturday's game was one of the prettiest tallies you'll see on a high school lacrosse field this spring.
Matt Malloy passed the ball out from behind the cage to a cutting McCormack, and the junior faked a forehand shot before bringing his stick back and shooting behind his head to make it 15-0 -- all without breaking stride.
Malloy ended up with three goals and three assists. Cole Hughes scored two and set up two more.
John Driver scored a pair of goals, and seven different Mounties had a goal apiece: Jonah Kelley, Cole Jackson, Thomas Astle, Sean McCormack, Reilly Parker, Alejandro Vizquez-Salas and Ross Burnham.
Cal Filson stopped two shots in the first half, and Pat Storie made one save after the break in the Mount Greylock goal.
Mitchell Parise got Taconic on the board midway through the fourth quarter when he took the ball at midfield and brought it into the box before shooting a low line drive to make it 23-1. Moments later, Nick Whitaker scored while cutting across from the right wing.
John Tassone and Brian Dubois combined for four saves in Taconic's goal, but a number of Mount Greylock's wide open looks produced shots no keeper could have been expected to stop.
Asplundh said the Mounties -- who have yet to lose to a Massachusetts team -- have improved since its loss to Connecticut's Fairfield Ludlowe back on April 12.
"I give them all the credit in the world," he said. "We're a much better team than we wer a couple of months ago. But I don't think we're a complete team yet. We need to be a lot better in order to accomplish our goals."
Mount Greylock has just six games left to get better -- mostly against teams it already beat by double-digit margins once this season.
Asplundh said that even a blowout win is an opportunity to improve. And the Mounties need to take advantage of every opportunity they have in a compressed schedule that sees them play those six games in 10 days, starting Monday at Pittsfield.
"Practice is extremely important, especially since we're playing so many games," Asplundh said. "Practices are few and far between at the moment.
"But we feel like we can get better from games even if they don't end up being close. We just have challenge ourselves to play our best lacrosse and get better no matter what the score is."