Wellesley boys’ lacrosse shuts out Braintree

In a high-scoring sport like lacrosse it takes great defense and goaltending to get a shutout.

That's what Wellesley (10-6) brought to Braintree (3-13) on Friday and that's exactly what they got in a 16-0 win over the Wamps.

"Across the board our defense did a good job," said Wellesley coach Rocky Batty. "We held them to nothing, so that's a combination of our defense, our d-middies and Connor Darcey in goal playing well."

Darcey's play was fundamental to the Raiders' success, not only in keeping Braintree off the board, but organizing the defense and starting the offense.

"Connor played great," said Batty. "He's the backbone of not just our defense, but of our team. We do a lot of stuff that's about having him in the net instead of how our defense plays. We need him in every phase of the game."

After a slow start, it was the Wellesley goalie that got the offense going. With five minutes left in the first quarter Darcey made an outlet pass from behind his net to start a break that led to a goal by senior Alex Walkingshaw and a lead the Raiders wouldn't relinquish.

"It took us a whole quarter to figure a lot of stuff out," said Batty. "Nobody could clear the ball in the first quarter and once we kind of settled down he took control with a couple good outlets and fastbreaks."

Batty attributed the slow start to Braintree's tough zone defense, but once they figured it out they were able to capitalize with another Walkingshaw goal and two from junior captain Sam Lawrence to go up 4-0 after one.

"Braintree is strong and physical and it took us a little while to figure out," said Batty. "It's the first team we've seen play a zone for all 48 minutes and we had to figure out how to settle ourselves and slow down with them."

For much of the game the offense ran through junior captain Charlie Jennings, who finished with four goals and seemed to be involved in every offensive play.

"Offensively we kind of forced Charlie Jennings into two or three different positions and asked him to be the smartest guy on the field," said Batty. "He made a couple good decisions, so I'd give him some credit."

Picking up their 10th win qualifies Wellesley for the state tournament, but with four games left in the regular season there's still time to improve their game before the postseason.

"We're happy to be in the tournament after this one and now we have to build toward June," said Batty. "We've got to be able to recognize what someone puts in front of us and take advantage of it. We just have to make better adjustments more quickly, but we're close."

The Raiders will look to make those adjustments and avenge a loss on Monday when they travel to Walpole.

"They beat us in a nail biter earlier in the year and we're looking forward to playing them again," said Batty. "All the things I said we need to adjust to, we need to adjust to on Monday because they're a premier team and it would be nice to beat them."