UPDATED: Medfield Boys' Lax Captures Second Consecutive D2 East Sectional Title

It is back to the MIAA Division 2 State Finals for the defending state champs.

 Medfield (16-7), the ninth seed in the 2011 MIAA Division 2 East Sectional state tournament, defeated second seeded Concord-Carlisle, 11-5 Tuesday at Harvard Stadium to capture its second straight Division 2 East Sectional title and punch its ticket back to the state championship game, where it looks to successfully complete its title defense by adding another banner to an already impressive wall of achievement. 

"A league title means nothing, the streak means nothing, we want another ring," said Medfield head coach Bob Aronson. That’s what we are going for."

Medfield, playing its best lacrosse in June, is "peaking at the right time," according to Aronson, and that is, believe it or not, due in large part to the team struggling to handle self-induced pressure throughout the regular season.

“I think at the beginning of the season we were playing not to lose rather than playing to win with no self-confidence, no team chemistry and just trying to not let [losing] happen,” Aronson said.

Medfield had not lost a Tri-Valley League contest since 2002, a span of 119 games and had never lost a TVL title in the 10-year existence of the league. This season, the Warriors lost both, its first TVL game in eight years to Hopkinton and losing the TVL title to Dover-Sherborn. Despite those "crushing losses," Aronson said it was “in a way, it was a good thing” for the team because the players relaxed and refocused on the goal at hand – a state championship.

“I think with that weight lifted from them [losing its winning streak and the TVL title] they are playing looser and they’re listening to [coaches] and understanding offense a little better and are running it a little more freely and a little more creatively and it is starting to show it is coming together,” he said.

That offense was on full display Tuesday as the Warriors tallied 11 goals to cruise past Concord-Carlisle and into the Division 2 State Finals.

Despite netting just five goals in the game, C-C got on the board first as Matt Carroll beat Medfield's Sam Aronson at the 4:13 mark. That would be the Patriots' only lead of the game and it was short lived as Medfield’s Ben Mastrogiovanni beat C-C's Doug Gouchoe at 3:03 mark to tie the game at one and swing momentum to the Warriors.

“We tell our kids [lacrosse] is a game of runs,” Aronson said. “You can score a goal in seven seconds, it doesn’t take long [from the faceoff to down the field] so in 30 seconds you can score five goals. We know we can do it and we know another team can do it to us. So we’re very conscious of that. We tell them that it’s going to happen and every time we get punched, we got to punch back twice.”

After C-C’s initial “punch,” Medfield countered with a five-goal run before the Patriots stopped the bleeding.

Medfield’s Peter Gill, Connor Roddy (2) and Matthew Crowell netted first-half goals to build the 5-1 lead in the second quarter but as Aronson told his team, lacrosse is a game of runs and C-C put one together to close out the first half and pull within a goal of Medfield.

Carroll added his second goal of the half at 6:45 to end Medfield’s run and Mike O’Brien and Jackson Finigan tallied goals to close the Patriots’ deficit, 5-4 heading into halftime.

The second half was dominated by Medfield, outscoring C-C, 6-1 and controlling play on both sides of the field.

“We were moving the ball well, our defense was solid and did what we needed to do,” Aronson said. “[We had] some well-placed shots and face-offs were huge. Clay [Richard] was doing a great job putting it right on a wingman’s stick. He was winning a few when we weren’t getting a ground ball in the second half. He’s come up big for us and he’s doing a great job and we had some nice stops when we needed them.”

The Warriors shut out C-C in the third quarter, outscoring the Patriots, 3-0. Medfield’s Calvin Given and Chris Diana (2) netted third-quarter goals. Diana’s second goal of the quarter came with five seconds left in the frame and effectively sucked the life out of C-C.

“That’s a nice back-breaker, we moved around well, we hit two pipes and we stayed at it,” said Aronson. “We got a couple of chances and we got it again and got it again and we finally put it away.”

As for Diana, he has stepped up big for these Warriors in the state tournament.

“Since the Walpole game – [Diana] just broke open in the Walpole game for five goals and I don’t think he averaged more than a goal a game before that,” Aronson said. “I think that was a huge confidence builder for him personally and it also brought another weapon into our offense and the rest of the team rallied around that. I think that’s been a really big chemistry peace for us.”

In the final 12 minutes, Gill netted his second goal, Crowell tallied his second and David Parsons put the nail in the coffin with 2:44 remaining to give the Warriors an 11-5 advantage.

C-C’s lone goal in the second half came with 3:03 to play as Seth Bird beat Aronson to pull the Patriots within five but Parsons quickly answered and the Medfield defense silenced C-C’s attack the rest of the way.

“[Defense] just [tries] to play our game and scout them as well as we can and know what their tendencies are and try to take their strengths away from them,” Aronson said of the defense’s effective play in the second half. “You know, nobody is superhuman, nobody can cover everything, so we just take away their strengths and exploit their weaknesses and we had a good game plan. Defense stuck to it and the middies on defense so we couldn’t ask for more than that. “

Medfield awaits the winner of the Central Massachusetts Sectional champion and the Western Massachusetts Sectional champion and expects to play its Division 2 State Final on Friday at Foley Stadium in Worcester. Aronson said his team is looking forward to playing for another state title.

“Guys have been stepping up at the right time,” he said. “There’s a lot of self-confidence this team has and it shows out there. We got a couple more practices and another game and we’re looking forward to it.”