Nauset Boys Lacrosse Reaches State Semifinals For Second Consecutive Season

NORTH EASTHAM – The first step was to at least host three home playoff games. The Nauset boys lacrosse team not only did that, they earned victories in each, reaching a position the No. 2 seed Warriors want to expect to be in every year, head coach Jesse Peno said.

The Warriors took advantage of their seeding and are now at the part of the Division 3 playoffs where, to Peno, it’s anybody’s ballgame.

“You get to this point and you’ve got to play your best lacrosse regardless of where you are, home or away, because we’re all on the same footing,” Peno said.

To get to the Final Four, Nauset in the past week took down No. 15 seed Hanover 20-14 last Thursday in the round of 16, then followed up with a 16-10 win over Nashoba in the quarterfinals Saturday.

The win against Hanover was a “total team effort” and a “dogfight,” according to Peno. There was no score in the first five minutes, and Nauset broke a 2-2 tie late in the first quarter and never gave up the lead. The game, coming after a first round victory against No. 34 seed Montachusett in which many Nauset starters sat out the latter part of the blowout win, was a signal that championship tournament lacrosse had arrived.

“I feel like we’re really in it now,” senior goalkeeper Zach Coelho said afterwards. “We got that playoff mentality.”

Senior Sawyer McCutchen scored four goals, and seniors Logan Poulin and Joey Berardi had three each among the 11 total goal scorers. 

“Everybody’s fired up now after coming off that win,” Coelho said. “We’re all in that ‘we’re going to win this’ mentality.”

Said Berardi, who scored two of his three in the first and added an assist: “Three goals, zero goals, whatever. It’s just whatever gets us the W.”

Peno also credited saves by Coelho and the performance by the defense, which included senior Fin Mayhew diving in front of a shot. Poulin, who hadn’t taken faceoffs since April, according to Peno, stepped in to take them, a move Peno said shifted momentum.

“Everybody needs to buy in,” Coelho said. “That’s what it’s going to take.” 

A couple days later in the quarterfinals against Nashoba, Nauset rolled out to another quick start, like it had done in the first round. Freshman Jack Peno led with seven goals while Poulin followed with three among six different scorers.

“We were able to hang on,” Peno said. “They made a pretty good run. They were a talented team, but we never really gave up that early lead we had.”

With the Warriors now back in the semifinals, the championship experience top to bottom on the team enters the forefront. Several players on the roster — including Poulin, Coelho, senior Andrew Bohannon, juniors Oscar Escher and Jake Eldredge and sophomore Braxton Bassett — were on the team that won the Division 3 state hockey title earlier this year.

“It’s a lot of our core guys, and they just don’t get too up or too down,” Peno said. “They’re used to being a high seed, having expectations, playing under pressure. They don’t panic when things don’t go their way.”

As Nauset returns to the semifinals after falling to No. 1 seed eventual champion Medfield in 2024, they’ll see a familiar opponent. At neutral site Barnstable — on Wednesday, after this week’s deadline — the Warriors will face No. 3 seed Falmouth (14-5). 

They’ve played twice already this year. Falmouth took the first game at Nauset 9-4; Nauset won the second in Falmouth 8-7. There are no secrets between the fellow Cape and Islands League members, according to Peno. 

“This is round three of a great set of games, so we have a little bit of comfort with that, knowing them inside and out,” he said.