PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- A mid-season adjustment paid big dividends for the Taconic boys lacrosse team on Monday.
On Senior Day at Berkshire Community College, Taconic’s defense held visiting McCann Tech scoreless until midway through the third quarter en route to an 11-6 win.
“We started putting in some different formations on defense to better help our guys play,” Taconic coach Tom Harris said. “We started it with Wahconah [on Friday], and it worked well with them in the second half. It worked well with McCann today.
“The guys just keep giving it their all, which is great.”
Troy Schweitzer, who made nine saves to pick up the win, said that Taconic’s cohesiveness allowed it to try a new defense at the start of the month.
“We started working on a zone recently in practice, and we switched to it in the middle of the Wahconah game, and it worked really well,” Schweitzer said. “We decided to try it today’s game, too. I felt good about it. Everyone’s working on all cylinders.
“Everyone on this defense, we’re all close. We all know each other. We have good chemistry. It was pretty easy to make the switch. As long as we keep everyone on the same page and make sure they know what their priority is, they can keep communicating with each other.”
Offensively, Sean Soper scored four goals and set up two more to lead Taconic.
He assisted on Seamus Hayes’ goal with about eight minutes left in the third quarter to give their team a 9-0 lead.
But McCann Tech (5-4) rallied from there.
Darian Tovani (two goals) scored from high on the left wing to get the Hornets on the board with about seven minutes left in the third.
McCann Tech then outscored its hosts by a margin of 5-2 in the fourth.
After Soper scored to open the fourth, the Hornets went on a 5-0 run to get back within four goals.
Colby Ghidotti started things off with the first of his two goals with an assist from Jason Delisle, who assisted on three straight -- setting up David Rancourt and Ghidotti again. Tovani then scored with an assist from Ghidotti to get it to 10-5 before Taconic scored an own goal with less than a minute left.
Soper added an unassisted goal with nine seconds on the clock to provide the final margin.
McCann Tech coach Paul Lange said his team Monday learned a lesson about starting the game strong.
“I told them, we had a great second half,” Lange said. “We won the second half. It should have been a closer game from the beginning.
“We made a few adjustments, and they helped a little bit. But the big thing is they just played harder [after half-time]. They played harder, they moved off the ball better, looked for the passes better and took better shots.”
Keegan Dellaghelfa made 10 saves in goal for McCann Tech (5-4), which goes to Granby on Tuesday.
Taconic (2-8) wrapped up the home portion of its schedule on Monday. It also won for the first time since an April 14 road trip to Maple Hill, N.Y.
Despite the losses that came in between, Taconic never gave up on itself, Schweitzer said.
“No matter what, we’re all family,” he said. “We love the game. So. win or lose, we’re going to come out and have a great time on the field.”
Taconic goes to St. Mary’s on Tuesday.
Photos of this game here.
