WALPOLE, Mass. - After one quarter of the season, King Philip was in the perfect position leading 1-0. But, things turned around quickly as Walpole scored nine consecutive goals and pulled away for a 13-5 victory in Friday’s season opener at Turco Field.
After an even start that saw both KP goalie Peyton Rochon and Walpole’s Andrew Blood each forced into early saves, Sam Agricola gave the Warriors the lead. He took a pass from senior Brett McEvoy and finished from close range with 3:40 left in the quarter.
The lead would not last long in the second. Patrick Baker scored a man-up goal just 14 seconds into the second. A minute later and Baker found Seamus Ford for the first of his three second quarter goals. With 7:58 left to halftime, Mark Niden stole a pass at midfield and raced in for the first of his three goals to make it 4-1.
The wheels seemed to fall off for KP at that point as the Rebels dominated possession. Ford added two more goals before halftime and Sean Donnelly added two to make it 7-1 going into the break.
“I’d say our goalie played really well in the first quarter,” said first-year KP coach Jacob Kravitz. “I would say that one of our strengths is transition and loose balls and unsettled and our one goal in the first quarter was an unsettled and we were able to hold them down and it was 1-0 and it was great.”
He added, “I think we lost track of some of our fundamentals in the second quarter. We got some of that back in the second half, but too little too late.”
The Warriors created chances in the second half to try and get back into the game. Junior captain Brandon King had a trio of attempts from close but was unable to find the cage and then Blood, who finished with 14 saves, made a pair of stops to stymie the KP attack.
After the missed opportunities on one end, Walpole took advantage on the other. Tom Dicalogero scored twice in the third to make it 9-1. King answered to make it 9-2 and then Nick Roberts, who was 16-18 on face-offs for the Warriors, scored on a fast break.
In the fourth quarter, Johnny Piatelli scored a pair of goals for KP but Walpole added three more of its own. Blood continued to be huge in goal for the Rebels, but Kravitz also noted that the Warriors need to expand their repertoire of shot attempts as well.
“Our biggest thing going forward is working on finishing our opportunities,” he said. “I think total shots were pretty even and we didn’t finish as many as they did.”
It has been a difficult few weeks for all spring teams to try and get time outside and on the full field, as evidenced by the snow piles that lined Turco Field on Friday. The problem was exacerbated at King Philip by a power outage that cost the Warriors a day of practice on Thursday.
Kravitz said, “We haven’t had as much full-field practice as I would like and most of our work has been on ground balls and riding and I think in the areas that we have spent our time on we played well.”
He added, “Our stengths today were not enough to counteract their polish in front of net.”
As he gets his first season in charge underway, Kravitz has confidence that his young team will get stronger with more game experience. He is keeping the expectations high.
“I feel like we should be competitive in every game to be right in it in the Hock and to be in the playoffs at the end of the season.”
King Philip (0-1) will host league rival Oliver Ames on Monday afternoon.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.