The Swampscott High School boys lacrosse team got their playoff run underway Thursday with a decisive 15-3 preliminary round victory over South Shore Technical High School.
Junior John Von Barta led the way for the Big Blue, scoring six goals including four consecutive tallies in the second half to put the game out of reach. Senior Captain Jason Rothwell got the scoring started just 43 seconds after the game started and added another goal in the second quarter.
Von Barta and Rothwell are two of many important pieces to the Big Blue’s success, said Head Coach Geoff Beckett.
“Rothwell is our senior captain,” said Beckett. “Guys have really been following his lead. The juniors and sophomores are really starting to learn and figure out how they can lead this team as well.”
Beckett said Von Barta can shoot the ball “a million miles per hour,” possibly a slight hyperbole, but Von Barta’s shot was dynamic for the duration of the afternoon.
“He’s phenomenal,” Beckett said. “He’s a great athlete…He can dodge. He has great hands. Everyone knows where No. 1 is.”
As a whole, Beckett said the Big Blue came out flying to start the game, and was clicking on all cylinders to advance to the next round.
“We’re super thrilled to make it to the playoffs,” said Beckett. “It’s kind of nice that we got this extra home game in after some frustrating losses at the end of the regular season.”
After scoring four goals in the first quarter, Swampscott scored just one in the second period and took a 5-1 lead into the halftime break.
“That second quarter we just got a little complacent, especially with our shooting,” said Beckett. “We were hitting the goalie too much. At halftime we really focused on burying our shots and making sure we kept that ball in our stick.”
The 26th Seed Big Blue now turn their attention to 7th Seed Weston High School, who boast a 15-1 record on the season. Swampscott will travel to Weston for the round of 32 matchup on Monday at 6 p.m.
“Weston’s a very talented team,” said Beckett. “They’re very disciplined. They don’t make mistakes, they don’t turn the ball over and they don’t take bad shots. We’ve got to make sure that we up our game in that sense. If we play smart, disciplined and hard lacrosse, I think these guys can play with anybody so I can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen.”
