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<strong>July</strong> <strong>2017</strong> <strong>Norfolk</strong> & <strong>Wrentham</strong> Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com Page 25<br />
Sports<br />
Seniors Lead Young KP Lax Squad<br />
By Christopher Tremblay<br />
Staff Sports Writer<br />
Approximately 3 ½ months<br />
ago when King Philip athletes<br />
began picking up the lacrosse<br />
sticks for the spring, first year<br />
coach Jamie Stefanini knew that<br />
he had a relatively young team,<br />
but figured they could still win<br />
12-14 games despite the toughness<br />
of their schedule. The Warriors<br />
did just that, finishing at<br />
12-8 while earning a nine seed<br />
in the Division 1 South Tournament.<br />
Having only six seniors as<br />
part of their team, King Philip<br />
looked to the experienced athletes<br />
for guidance throughout<br />
the season. Leading the way into<br />
the post-season was 4-year<br />
starting goalie Paul Macrina.<br />
The senior captain<br />
was named to the Hockomock<br />
All-Star team as<br />
well as an Eastern Mass<br />
All-Star.<br />
“Paul had 210 saves<br />
while giving up 132 goals<br />
in 20 games for an average<br />
of 6.6 goals a game,” the KP<br />
Coach said. “Without him we<br />
would have had no shot whatsoever<br />
in making the tournament.”<br />
In addition to Macrina<br />
guarding the KP net, Stefanini<br />
also got key performances from<br />
his other five seniors: defender<br />
Conor Khung, long stick midfielder<br />
Zach D’Amico, attacker<br />
Tim Watson, midfielder John<br />
Deluca and attacker Ben Palmer.<br />
Watson, an Eastern Mass and<br />
Hockomock League All-Star, tallied<br />
54 goals and 25 assists for<br />
the Warriors, giving the coach<br />
much more than he anticipated.<br />
“Tim’s an exceptional athlete,<br />
but I really didn’t think he’d accomplish<br />
this much,” Stefanini<br />
said. “He definitely exceeded my<br />
expectations, while scoring some<br />
big goals when we really needed<br />
them and stepped up his game in<br />
the fourth quarter.”<br />
Another senior that was key<br />
in KP’s scoring attack was Deluca,<br />
who netted 21 goals and<br />
added 8 assists on the season.<br />
According to the coach, Deluca’s<br />
a horse who can get the ball<br />
from one end of the field to the<br />
other and set up the Warrior’s<br />
attackers. D’Amico, another<br />
Eastern Mass and Hockomock<br />
League All-Star, had 9 goals and<br />
4 assists and 105 ground balls,<br />
but was much more instrumental,<br />
not only taking face-offs, but<br />
guarding the opposition’s best<br />
defender.<br />
Rounding out the seniors<br />
were Khung, a defender that<br />
usually stacked up against the<br />
opponents best attacker and<br />
Palmer, a midfielder who was<br />
forced to move to attacker.<br />
Outside the seniors, Stefanini<br />
found a few surprises in junior<br />
Michael Curtin, a solid defender<br />
with a good outlet pass, and<br />
sophomore Colin DeVellis, who<br />
posted 22 goals and 36<br />
assists<br />
during the<br />
Warrior run.<br />
“I knew<br />
Colin was going<br />
to be good, but<br />
not this good, this<br />
quickly,” the KP<br />
Coach said. “A lot of<br />
his success was due to<br />
the fact that everyone<br />
knew what Tim (Watson)<br />
was capable of doing<br />
so they made it hard on<br />
him. We, in turn, focused<br />
on getting Colin the ball and<br />
he took it from there.”<br />
King Philip needed to<br />
come out strong and play four<br />
full quarters of lacrosse in order<br />
to edge Natick 6-3 in their first<br />
tournament contest. Unfortunately,<br />
in their next game, Boston<br />
College High turned the<br />
pages on the Warriors and defeated<br />
them 6-3.
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