By Josh Perry, Managing Editor
FRANKLIN, Mass. - With Xaverian storming back in the third quarter of Saturday’s Div. 1 South quarterfinal at Pisini Field and suddenly in control of momentum, Franklin coach Lou Verrochi gathered his team and tried to settle it down.
He looked at his players and asked them who would step up and score the next goal to stem the tide and get the Panther the win.
There was no surprise that it would be senior Jack Vail.
Three minutes into the fourth quarter, the Hockomock League MVP scored a highlight-reel goal that put the Panthers back up three and ended the Xaverian comeback. With the ball on the left of the goal and with towering defender Joe Gaziano on his back, Vail made a hard fake to the top of the defense that put the pole back on his heels and allowed space for a spin move into the middle.
“It was huge; we needed that one,” said senior Alec Borkowski. “Coach called a timeout and said this is it, this is what we’ve been working for, no team has ever gone past the second round, and this is it for us.”
Vail added another goal on a man-up rocket into the corner off an assist by Austin Kent with 7:02 remaining in the game, his sixth goal on the night and fifth in the second half, which put the Panthers up four and essentially sealed the deal on a 10-7 victory that sends Franklin (17-3) to its first ever sectional semifinal.
“He’s a stud,” said Verrochi. “If he doesn’t make All-American it’s a travesty. He’s been that way for a couple years now and he was just huge. That was their best defender and he just took him to school I thought.”
When asked what was working so well for the offense on Saturday, Vail explained, “We knew where to attack the poles and we knew they like to slide quick on the ball so we knew those feeds would be open, but also we knew that if we beat our guy and no one came to finish it around the corner.”
Xaverian took a 2-0 lead early in the second quarter, but the start of the game was dominated by the defensive efforts from both teams. Franklin made a point of face-guarding senior middie Will McCarthy with Joe Bourque to not allow him to touch the ball and put Borkowski on sophomore Jared Grier, who had a big game in the first round against Wellesley.
“We shut him off,” said Verrochi about McCarthy. “Joey Bourque is a warrior; there’s no quit in this kid at all. Practice sessions, games, you name it, and that kid is going to be there.”
Mike Sullivan, Matt Pleshaw, and Sean Lockhart kept an eye on Sean Sperzel behind the cage and were in constant support if someone got beat. When asked if this was the best the defense had played this year, Borkowski responded, “This is the pinnacle.”
He added, “Earlier this year, we were playing a little more 1-on-1 and just individual defense, not very good slides. Now we’re taking are 1-on-1 skills into our team defense and it’s meshing together well.”
Franklin scored two goal in 13 seconds to get back into the game. The first was started by the defense with Lockhart creating a turnover, chasing down the loose ball and then feeding Justin Miller alone next to goal. Off a win at the “X,” Kent ripped one past Xaverian’s star goalie Michael Toomey to make it 2-2.
After Xaverian got back in front, Franklin took control with six straight goals either side of halftime. Vail created the first with a pass across the crease to freshman Eric Civetti to tie the game and then in transition Civetti fed Vail for his first and Franklin’s first lead.
Senior midfielder Kyle Lundgren created the fifth with a one-handed, leaping interception of a clearance. The ball was played to Kent who picked out Jared Trainor alone in the middle to make it 5-3 at the break.
Little more than a minute into the third and Sullivan showed the positive side to his emotional game when he went flying towards the far sideline and dove to knock a ball forward and keep it from going out of play. It found Vail with tons of space and he raced forward to score.
“That was absolutely huge and that’s then type of hustle that wins games,” said Verrochi. “When he’s on his game, I think he’s the best pole in the state. He’s really dynamic.”
Vail was in a groove and again found time and space in transition to rifle in a shot to the corner that made it 7-3 and he added another with a dodge from behind the cage to his left hand.
Just when it seemed as though the game was won, Xaverian showed resiliency to get back into it. Peter Thorbahn scored with a dodge to the left alley and shortly after McCarthy got free in transition for the first time in the game. Thorbahn then scored his fourth of the game after beating a double team to cut the lead to 8-6.
There were flashbacks to the Panthers meeting with BC High where Franklin fell apart in the second half, but they made sure that it would not happen again.
“We mentioned it at halftime that we couldn’t afford to let up,” said Verrochi, “and we came out and responded and went up by five I think then they called a timeout and broke us down a little bit and the kids just rallied back.”
This time, the Panthers turned to Vail and the MVP put together the plays to wrap up what Verrochi called the “biggest win that the program has ever had.”
Vail said, “They were definitely making a comeback in that third quarter and once we decided to put in more goals we started to come back and that was definitely a big momentum shift for us.”
Despite a late goal by Sperzel, the Panthers hung on and advanced past the second round for the first time. When asked about his comment about being the program’s biggest win, Verrochi answered, “It definitely is. We’ve never gone this far in the tournament, so to reach this point is just huge.”
Franklin (17-3) will host No. 8 seed Catholic Memorial on Tuesday.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.