Mount Greylock Boys Rally to Win at Wahconah
DALTON, Mass. -- When Cullen Harrington scored in the first minute of the fourth quarter to give the Wahconah boys lacrosse team its first two-goal lead of the day against rival Mount Greylock, things looked good for the home team.
When Wahconah maintained that 7-5 lead for the next seven minutes, things looked even better.
But Mount Greylock scored three straight to take the lead and got a Taylor Cummings goal with 1 minute, 3 seconds on the clock to earn a 9-8 win on Thursday evening.
“We just had to step up, and it was open in the crease, so I had to shoot and make it,” Cummings said of the game-winner.
“We definitely needed to work on our energy, and we finally stepped up in the fourth quarter. We really brought it. Michael Wellspeak really shined in the fourth quarter.”
Wellspeak scored one of his two goals in Mount Greylock’s comeback, getting a groundball and coming out from behind the net to put one away and give the Mounties an 8-7 lead with 2:32 left.
But Wahconah (6-4) had the answer. Dart Jaggi bounced in a shot with 1:41 on the clock to tie the game at 8-8, setting the stage for Cummings’ heroics.
“I just told the guys, today was about character,” Mount Greylock coach Jeff Stripp said. “That’s what they showed at the end of the game. It was nice that they didn’t hang their heads. They kept going.
“They took care of the small things, and that’s kind of what plagued us the whole game. But at the end of the day, they didn’t do that for the last eight minutes. I’m really proud of the guys.”
Mount Greylock (8-4) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of Cummings goals. But Matt Mathers and Accardi scored for the hosts to even things up, and neither side got ahead by more than a goal until the fourth.
It was 3-3 at half-time after Wellspeak scored with 2:39 left in the second.
Midway through the third quarter, Harrington scored for Wahconah, but Hoby MacWhinnie answered with a pair to give Mount Greylock a 5-4 lead.
Then it was Wahconah’s turn to put on a run. Conner Noyes got things started with an assist from Mathers to tie it, and Accardi scored late in the third to make it 6-5.
When Harrington added his second of the game in the fourth, it looked like Wahconah was on its way to avenging a 12-8 loss in Williamstown earlier this spring.