Boys' lacrosse hopes for postseason berth
Their record remained at 6-8 while the boys' lacrosse team waited through last week's rains and the postponements piled up, giving it an unexpected, and unwanted, week off. Finally, on Monday, the sun broke through and the Whalers were able to face league opponent Dartmouth for a chance to make the tournament.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent Ray DeCosta moves in for the score against league foe Dartmouth.

"This is for a share of second place in the league," coach Rick Blair said before the game, noting that he hadn't yet been notified if second place would be good enough to secure a playoff spot. "There's a lot of things in play," he said.

He did offer one prediction. "We're going to try to get the ball moving," he said.

And the Whalers did just that, as perennially tough Dartmouth was never in this one after Mark Dwyer and Henry Farrell scored two early goals for Nantucket. From there, the Whalers continued to apply pressure, keeping the ball consistently in the Dartmouth end as Nantucket prevailed, 14-2.

The Whalers led 4-0 at the end of the first quarter, with Ray DeCosta and Hakeem Lecky also adding goals in the stanza, and 9-1 at the half. Dwyer scored twice in that period, with Taylor Thayer, Lecky and Farrell also joining in the scoring parade. Dartmouth was able to manage just one goal in each half.

"I thought our new offensive set, with two guys behind the net, did a good job of finding the open spaces in their zone," Blair said afterwards. "Defensively we played within ourselves and prevented their two all-league players from dominating the game."

As the post-season nears, Nantucket is a decidedly better team than it was a few weeks ago and is playing its best lacrosse when it counts. "Our freshmen and sophomores are beginning to step into their roles," Blair noted. "I thought our senior defenders gave us a good effort today, with Matt Aguiar, John O'Mara, Josh Stone and Jordan Beans playing exceptionally."

The Whalers traveled to Bishop Connolly Tuesday and host Cape Cod Academy this afternoon (at 3 p.m.), before finishing up the season at last year's Division 3 finalist Scituate tomorrow.

After that, the team will wait for Friday to see

how the tournament shapes up. I

- Steve Sheppard