Wahconah Gets Last-Minute Win at Mount Greylock
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Kesler Anello scored with 11 seconds left in regulation Wednesday to complete a 4-1 Wahconah run in a 6-5 win over Mount Greylock.
“I was open, yelled to Owen Brennan, and I just put it in the net,” the ninth-grader said after giving Wahconah its first win of the season and first against a Mountie program resurrected after several years.
Wahconah coach Matt Fisher said it felt good to see his team bounce back after losing by double-digit margins in its first two outings this spring.
“We have 15 underclassmen,” Fisher said. “A lot of them have never played lacrosse before. That was a tough, tough game on both sides.
“A lot of credit to Greylock. We got better from it. We have a lot of work to do. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win at the end of the day.”
On the other side of the field, Mount Greylock coach Dan Collins also knows something about young teams.
“I was pleasantly surprised in the first week of practice,” the longtime youth coach in Marshfield said of the team he took over this spring. “I could tell right away we have talent. We have basic stick skills that they came in with. We weren’t teaching people how to catch, throw and cradle. So we jumped deeper into offense and deeper into defense right away.
“If you look at where we were three weeks ago and you looked at this, you wouldn’t recognize the team. They’re improving rapidly. I’m very pleased with my assistant coach [Pittsfield native Adrian Enchill] and very pleased with the program.”
The Mounties (1-1) jumped on top early on Thursday when Reed Olney scored in the first minute of the game.
It ended up the only goal of the first quarter in a low-scoring first half.
The teams traded goals in the second quarter.
First, Wahconah’s Owen Brennan won the quarter-opening faceoff and raced into the box before setting up Anello for a game-tying goal. Midway through the period, Mount Greylock’s Luke Irwin converted an assist from Ed Strolle to put their team up, 2-1, at half-time.
Wahconah again struck early to start the third quarter as Devin Lagerwall scored the first of his three goals to tie the game.
But Mount Greylock got a goal eight seconds later. Dow Young’s faceoff win led to Olney’s goal to put the Mounties ahead, and Tanner Haig-Taylor scored with an assist from Henry Easton to give the hosts the game’s only two-goal margin, 4-2.
Wahconah drew within one with a man-up goal from Brennan late in the third.
“They played a great game,” Collins said of Wahconah. “They were well coached. And they really got on their horse in the third quarter, and that started to knock us back a little on our heels, but we played right to the end.”
Lagerwall scored back-to-back goals to give Wahconah a 5-4 lead with 5 minutes, 2 seconds remaining.
The Mounties’ Olney completed his hat trick to tie it two minutes later.
Mount Greylock won the ensuing faceoff and possessed for nearly two minutes before a turnover gave Wahconah a chance with 55 seconds left in regulation.
After a timeout, Wahconah patiently worked the clock down before Brennan found Anello for the game-winner.
Zack Schneider made six saves to earn the win in goal. Mount Greylock’s Odin Wojtkowski had nine saves.
Wahconah’s Fisher was pleased to see his team battle back for the win after trailing most of the afternoon.
“Day one, we preach accountability, hard work and effort,” he said. “I can’t say anything bad about the effort today. I know we didn’t play great, but they never gave up. We were resilient, and I’m happy because this is good for us, learning how to be down and coming back. It’s good for the future for us.”
Collins said it was good for Mount Greylock to compete against a program that is just three years removed from the only state championship ever claimed by Berkshire County in the sport.
“I certainly look at it as a positive,” he said. “This is our first game against a legitimate, threat, varsity team. And we held our own down to, what? 48 seconds or something like that. We just told the boys, we’ve got to start again tomorrow, keep working on it. What we have to do is eliminate mistakes.
“This wasn’t a mismatched set of teams. This was a fair fight.”