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10<br />
WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 781-593-7700 JUNE 23, 2022<br />
The St. John’s Prep boys lacrosse team huddles up midway through their 12-8 win over Needham in the Division 1 state semifinal.<br />
Prep boys lacrosse team flies like<br />
an Eagle into the state final<br />
PHOTO | MADDI FILIP<br />
BOYS LACROSSE<br />
By Maddi Filip<br />
BURLINGTON –– It took a<br />
bit of a tussle to get there, but<br />
the St. John’s Prep boys lacrosse<br />
team will be playing for<br />
a state championship Tuesday.<br />
The Eagles won the right to<br />
play Catholic Conference rival<br />
BC High for the Division 1 title<br />
Tuesday (5) at Worcester State<br />
University with a grueling 12-8<br />
win over Hingham Saturday<br />
morning.<br />
“It’s a great game you want<br />
to be in,” said the Eagles’<br />
Jimmy Ayers. “ That’s a great<br />
team we just played. Their defense<br />
did a great job. So it was<br />
really difficult for us to start<br />
putting balls in the net.”<br />
The top-seeded Eagles fell<br />
behind early in the first quarter<br />
to the No. 4 Harbormen, but<br />
kept climbing out of the hole<br />
until Ayers scored to give them<br />
the lead.<br />
The second quarter was a<br />
copy and paste of the first,<br />
once one team scored the other<br />
tied it back up. Lucas Verrier<br />
and Harlan Graber took turns<br />
keeping the game tied while<br />
Tommy Sarni put the team<br />
ahead for however short the<br />
time was. As the two teams<br />
headed to halftime Hingham<br />
scored a last-second goal tying<br />
the game at 5-5.<br />
“We knew that they were<br />
going to come out aggressive<br />
and ready to play and we<br />
were excited for that,” said<br />
the Eagles’ Charlie Wilmot.<br />
“We haven’t really had a game<br />
where we’ve been on our<br />
heels.”<br />
The Eagles trailed for most<br />
of the third quarter until Ayers<br />
not only reminded Hingham<br />
who he was by tying the game,<br />
but scoring the go-ahead goal<br />
too. That didn’t last long.<br />
Hingham tied it right back<br />
up again at 7-7 going into the<br />
fourth quarter.<br />
The final period started like<br />
the previous three with the<br />
Eagles trailing by one. Again<br />
Ayers reminded Hingham<br />
that he was still a force to be<br />
reckoned with by bringing the<br />
game to its eighth tie. Sarni<br />
then brought The Prep to its<br />
fourth lead of the game. And<br />
this time, The Prep ran it it.<br />
Tim Haarmann added to the<br />
lead, and Ayers extended it<br />
15 seconds later with his fifth<br />
goal of the game. Wilmot put<br />
the final nail in the coffin just<br />
under the two-minute mark<br />
leading the team to its 12-8<br />
victory.<br />
“It’s been close in the third<br />
fourth quarter, so I think as<br />
the game went on we kind of<br />
settled into that,” said Wilmot.<br />
“At the beginning of the game,<br />
we were holding the sticks too<br />
tight. At halftime, the message<br />
was ‘you prepared for this, be<br />
ready for this, and just loosen<br />
up on the sticks.’”<br />
The Eagles are now set to<br />
make a return trip to the finals<br />
after winning last year.<br />
“It’s awesome. Obviously<br />
the final is where you want<br />
to be. Fortunately enough we<br />
might be able to get another<br />
one after coming off of the win<br />
last year in the championship,”<br />
said Ayers.<br />
“I say this a lot but it’s really<br />
nice for the seniors to know that<br />
that’s their last game. Not a lot<br />
of teams get to say to their seniors<br />
— (that) this is gonna be<br />
our last game no matter what.<br />
So all the effort’s going to be<br />
put out on the field and it’s if<br />
we can get a result or not.”<br />
“We’re just thrilled that we<br />
get three more days together.<br />
It’s like we are maxing out<br />
the amount of time this team<br />
can spend with each other by<br />
getting to the state championship,”<br />
said Prep coach John<br />
Pynchon. “Whatever happens<br />
in the state championship<br />
there’s no more lacrosse. After<br />
that, there are no more practices,<br />
no more daily emails, no<br />
more of all the stuff that we’ve<br />
been doing. So, we’re just excited<br />
to be back.”<br />
Tony Lena goes from fast food<br />
to the fast action of tennis<br />
BOYS TENNIS<br />
By Steve Krause<br />
CAMBRIDGE –– If you grew<br />
up anywhere in the last century,<br />
you probably had a submarine<br />
sandwich at Tony Lena’s.<br />
That was a long time ago. At<br />
its zenith, Lena had 29 sandwich<br />
shops strewn around the Greater<br />
Boston area. Today, he has but<br />
one — in Swampscott.<br />
But that’s by design. Lena has<br />
a different passion these days<br />
— tennis — a game he took up<br />
when he was 30. Now, at the age<br />
of 77 (he’ll be 78 in July), Lena<br />
has parlayed what he’s learned<br />
from all the tennis matches he’s<br />
played at the North Shore Tennis<br />
Club — which he managed for 15<br />
years — to coaching. He began<br />
coaching at Swampscott High as<br />
an assistant, left for a spell, and<br />
came back to Lynnfield to be<br />
Jack Dunn’s assistant when the<br />
Pioneers needed a boys tennis<br />
coach,<br />
It’s impossible to get the smile<br />
off Lena’s face. And on a cold,<br />
raw day in Cambridge, with<br />
the wind off the Charles River<br />
swirling around and causing the<br />
tennis balls being lobbed back<br />
and forth in the Division 4 state<br />
final against Weston to do all<br />
sorts of weird things, there was<br />
Lena, in sun glasses and short<br />
pants. And loving every minute<br />
of it.<br />
Oddly enough, it was his exwife<br />
Carolina who introduced<br />
him to tennis.<br />
“We went away, and she<br />
bought me a racquet, so I started<br />
to play,” he said. “I think I<br />
played 10 matches down there,<br />
and thought it was fun for me.<br />
“It’s great exercise,” he said.<br />
“You don’t have to go running,<br />
or walking, and there are no<br />
weights. You go out and play a<br />
game, you have fun, and you’re<br />
not all stiff afterward.”<br />
Another member of that North<br />
Shore Tennis Club was Joe<br />
Dunn, who has been playing<br />
tennis all his life.<br />
“We ended up playing doubles<br />
together and becoming friends,”<br />
Dunn said.<br />
“Yeah,” said Lena. I’d play up<br />
front and he’d play in the back,<br />
and if a ball went over my head,<br />
I’d call for him to get it.”<br />
Lena still plays, though he<br />
admits he’s nowhere what he<br />
used to be. He’s had some leg<br />
issues, and they’ve slowed him<br />
down a bit. But when Dunn<br />
came calling, Lena was willing.<br />
And there he was Saturday,<br />
coaching the Pioneers as they<br />
fell to Weston, 5-0, in the state<br />
title game. .<br />
He says coaching high school<br />
players again keeps him young.<br />
“You do feel young,” he said.<br />
“I hadn’t done it in 35 years, and<br />
now here I am.”<br />
And he knows there’s nothing<br />
else he’d rather be doing with<br />
his time.<br />
“Tennis is a passion,” he said.<br />
And — and for sub sandwich<br />
fans this may be a little hard to<br />
hear — he considers what he’s<br />
doing now much more enjoyable<br />
than making sandwiches.<br />
PHOTO | LINDA KRAUSE<br />
Tony Lena says coaching high<br />
school tennis helps him feel<br />
young.
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