Mount Greylock Boys Avenge Loss to Hoosac Valley
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Back on April 29, the Mount Greylock boys lacrosse team dropped a one-goal decision to Hoosac Valley.
The Mounties have come a long way since then.
Mac Waynick scored four times, and David Falk stopped seven shots Tuesday as Mount Greylock earned a 16-4 win over Hoosac Valley on MCLA’s Shewcraft Field.
“We had our struggles the first part of the season, for sure,” Mounties coach Jeff Stripp said. “You know, we were missing guys. We’re feeling like we’re finally getting our guys band and into the right spots.
“I think we struggled a little bit determining where personnel should be with all the other players out. So I think we feel like we’re getting close to our groove.”
And not a moment too soon.
Mount Greylock (10-6) has one regular season game left, Wednesday at home against Lee, before the Central/Western Massachusetts tournament pairings come out on Friday.
A win over the Wildcats would match the Mounties’ longest win streak of the year at three and give them some momentum going into the post-season.
On Tuesday, Stripp’s team came out determined to avenge one of its two Berkshire County League losses this spring.
The Mounties scored three times by the midway point of the first quarter and led 5-0 before Hoosac Valley got on the board.
After that Nate Haley goal in the first minute of the second quarter made it 5-1, Mount Greylock scored the next eight in a run that spanned the second and third quarters.
Waynick’s goal with an assist from Michael Wellspeak in the fifth minute of the third quarter made it a 12-goal margin and sent the game to running time.
Wellspeak finished with a goal and three assists, and Sean Malloy had a hat trick for the Mounties, who got two goals and an assist from Alex Falk.
Justin Meczywor had a hat trick, and Brady Larkin stopped 17 shots while allowing 14 goals for the Hurricanes, who finished the regular season at 12-6 and also will be looking ahead to Friday’s tournament pairings.
A big key for Mount Greylock on Tuesday was its dominance on faceoffs, where freshman Tate Kuster helped his team get nearly all the restarts in the first half.
“He’s one of the hardest workers on the team,” Stripp said. “He’s doing a great job. We’ve learned against some of the harder teams we’ve played like Lincoln-Sudbury and Fairfield [Conn.] and Westfield. Those guys challenged him, and, as a result, I think we’ve gotten better because of playing at that slightly higher level -- or a much larger level as far as Lincoln-Sudbury is concerned.”