East Lyme boys grind out ECC title win in defensive battle
East Lyme — The Eastern Connecticut Conference boys' lacrosse tournament final was more tractor pull than track meet on Thursday.
Defenses dominated in the showdown between top-seeded East Lyme and upset-minded Waterford, the No. 3 seed making its first championship appearance.
A late third-quarter surge by the Vikings eventually broke the deadlock.
Freshman James McCoy and junior Matthew Boguszewski scored about three and a half minutes apart to break a 4-4 tie and East Lyme held on for a 6-5 victory at East Lyme High School.
The low-scoring affair was predictable as East Lyme won the regular season meeting, 4-0.
The fact that the Vikings emerged as the winner wasn't surprising considering the highly-successful program had won 12 of the previous 13 ECC championships.
"They're all special," coach Gary Wight said of the titles. "It's more important because we know there's more pressure on this team to compete and do that. But these guys stepped up this year."
It was fitting that a goalie earned most valuable player honors. East Lyme senior Ryan Janovic made 10 saves, including a few sparkling stops in the second half, was the deserving winner.
"Momentum changes," Wight said of Janovic's saves. "They could have been game changers if Waterford could have been able to get one of those in. ... We never really got momentum going but Ryan was able to stop a couple to prevent momentum going in their direction."
Defenders Chris Catanzaro, Dylan Janovic, Dalton Franco and Andrew Noorigian helped form a tight defensive shell in front of the goal. McCoy had two goals while Boguszewski, Trevor Brodaski, Aaron Dixon and Ryan deLaforcade each added one.
The Vikings (11-7) treated Thursday's final game like it was a first-time experience.
"We play the game like we've never been here before," Ryan Janovic said, "so we play as hard as we can. We expect to win, but we win with pride and class."
Neither team could break away. East Lyme led 4-3 at halftime.
The Vikings carried a 6-4 lead into the fourth quarter and continued to prevent the Lancers from mounting any consistent attack.
But Waterford stuck around, cutting the deficit to 6-5 on sophomore Logan Bowdish's goal with 1:53 remaining. The Lancers gained possession but managed just one shot that sailed well over the goal. Junior Mason Mobley finished with two goals.
"We're a defensive minded team," Waterford coach Chris Landry said. "What we did is what we're expected. We're a little disappointed. We just didn't clear the ball well when we needed to. ... They capitalized on our mistakes."
A maturing East Lyme team is playing its best lacrosse at the right time. It's taken time for the Vikings to develop.
"We had a lot of guys graduate this past year," Wight said. "Coming into this season, we just knew that we needed to get games under our belt to get some experience. We played a full game (in the semifinals) against Stonington and felt pretty good.
"... The level of our play from the beginning of the season to where we're at now, it's amazing. ... We're in a good place right now."
The Waterford program also is in a good place. Landry walked around giving out hugs and high-fives to his players after the loss. The Lancers fell to 13-5.
"This is a big moment for our team," Landry said. "For a town like Waterford that loves our baseball and loves our athletics, for us to come in here for the first time and put East Lyme on the ropes a little bit, it says a lot about our kids.
"We have great kids. We grind and fight hard. We play for each other."
g.keefe@theday.com
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