2008 State Finals

2008 Season State Championship Game
   
Championship Game Summary - June 11th 2008
Lacrosse season ends in heartbreak for Billerica
Indians Lose a Heartbreaker in OT to Duxbury 14-13
By Lynn Worthy, lworthy@lowellsun.com
    
CAMBRIDGE -- It's not fair. They wanted it. They worked for it. They deserved it. They had it in their grasp practically the entire game.
But the Billerica High Indians didn't get the state championship. Duxbury High senior midfielder Gus Quinzani scored 56 seconds into the sudden-death overtime period to give the Green Dragons a 14-13 win in the Division 1 boys lacrosse final last night at Harvard Stadium.
The victory gave Duxbury its fifth straight state title (sixth since 2002).
The Green Dragons defeated Billerica 11-10 in double-overtime of last year's state semifinal, and Duxbury, winner of more than 80 consecutive games against MIAA opponents, edged the Indians in a 11-10 non-league game in April.
"Unfortunately, it's just going to be time, the only thing that can heal this," Billerica head coach Chris Burns said when asked what he said to his players after the heartbreaking loss. "It's going to be a long time. All we can do is tell them how proud we are of them, and how proud we are what they accomplished this year. You know, a double-overtime goal with them (Duxbury) last year. Three straight one-goal games. We're there. We're just a step away. We've got to figure out how to get over that hump."
It's inconceivable that the Indians could've come any closer to getting over that hump than they did last night. They even bounced back after Duxbury scored a potentially back-breaking goal in the final minute of the game.
Billerica had just forced the Green Dragons into a turnover, but the Indians failed to clear the ball out of their end. Instead, a Billerica turnover led to a goal by Derek Sweet to put Duxbury up 13-12 with 38 seconds to play.
The Indians got possession and took a timeout with 29 seconds left.
When play restarted, senior Jeff Scarfo decided to take it himself, looping across the field from left to right before dodging right and releasing a laser past the Duxbury goalie and into the bottom left corner of the net to tie the score 13-13 with 21 seconds left to set the stage for overtime.
"Our first option is always to go to shoot," Burns said. "No one ended up sliding to Jeff, and Jeff made the right decision and kept going. If someone slides to try to stop him, then he looks to make that extra pass. This is something Jeff did for us before. He tied up a game for us last year to tie up the league championship against Andover, which we ended up winning. So we're not surprised he was able to do that for us tonight."
The Indians grabbed the lead right out of the gate, recording the first goal of the game thanks to Adam Foss' strike one minute into the first quarter. Greg Melaugh netted the game's second goal eight seconds later.
Duxbury answered with two goals, but Billerica jumped right back out to a 4-2 lead. The Green Dragons tallied two goals in the final 2:01 of the first quarter to even the score.
That trend continued throughout the game.
With the exception of Duxbury taking a 5-4 lead for about two and a half minutes in the second quarter, the Indians were ahead or the score was tied up until the final minute of regulation.
Neither team ever had a lead of more than two goals. Still, it felt like Billerica had control from the start. It seemed like this time they'd hold on for the one-goal win.
"We scored a couple early on them in the first game too, but I think we were up on them all game, unfortunately, we had a turnover at the end of the game and gave them an opportunity to take the lead," Burns said.
Billerica senior goalie Pat O'Loughlin turned in a terrific performance in net for the Indians, stopping 17 shots including one in overtime.
Offensively, freshman attackman Grant Whiteway had four goals and one assist to lead the Indians. Foss (two goals), Melaugh (two goals, three assists), Scarfo (two goals), Mike Hurley (two goals, two assists), Ross Murphy (one goal) and Peter Vacca (one assist) each contributed to the scoring.

"They're awesome," Duxbury head coach Chris Sweet said of Billerica. "They're as well coached a team as we played all year long. They battled to the end. They're tough. Honestly, they deserved to win just as much as we did."