WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Years from now, the 2018 edition of the McCann Tech boys lacrosse team will not be remembered for giving up 20 first-half goals in a 24-5 loss to Mount Greylock in Sunday’s Central/Western Massachusetts Division 3 playoff game.
Rather, these Hornets will be remembered for being the team that earned the right to play in the sectional tournament.
“Somebody told me that the McCann football team didn’t play a playoff game for the first 53 years,” Hornets coach Paul Lange said. “We’ve done it in three.
“We’ve had actually two playoff games this season -- the State Voc and this one. That kind of puts it in perspective. These guys have accomplished in the third season what most teams take much longer to accomplish.”
Taylor Cummings scored four goals and set up a pair, four more Mounties each had a hat trick, and Michael Wellspeak had a goal and six assists as Mount Greylock won its 10th straight.
It is third-seeded Mount Greylock (15-4) who will move on to face the winner of Monday’s game between No. 6 Hoosac Valley (13-3) and No. 11 Lee (10-7). But Lange knows that most of his young squad will be back and ready to take even more steps forward in 2019.
“It’s grown every year, we’re getting better every year,” he said. “These guys are just a few more wall-ball sessions away from being a team that can pull off a win in a playoff game and then build from there.”
Mount Greylock coach Jeff Stripp will be glad to see the Hornets take that next step -- preferably against a different team.
“I love coach [Lange], he’s been around for a long time, and he’s doing a great job with the kids,” Stripp said. “It’s exciting that they get an opportunity to go to the playoffs. It’s good for the county. It’s good overall.
“For a third year program, for them to make this leap and get to the playoffs … he’s doing a great job there. We support him. Some of his guys play for us in the summer and the fall. He’s preaching the right things, and they’re doing the right things.”
The Mounties did everything right in the first quarter, jumping out to a 12-1 lead.
Hoby MacWhinnie and Sean Malloy each had a hat trick in the first 11 minutes of the game. Wellspeak had three of his assists in the first period.
“That was the plan for [Wellspeak] as far as what we wanted him to do today,” Stripp said. “That’s exactly what came forth. We’re happy with his control and getting his teammates involved. That’s part of what we preach: getting everybody involved.”
Fourteen different Mounties got in the scorebook on Sunday. Mac Waynick scored three goals and set up three more, and Kyle Trottier had three goals and two assists.
David Falk and Cole Seaman combined to stop five shots in Mount Greylock’s goal.
McCann Tech (10-8) got 14 saves from Keegan Dellaghelfa.
The Hornets’ Darian Tovani scored four goals, and Zavier Martin-Levesque had a goal.
Tovani, a sophomore, and Martin-Levesque, a junior, each will be back next spring.
“I think it’s exciting that these guys had such a great year in only our third year,” Lange said. “It’s only going to keep getting better from here. I think, to a man, every single kid on that bus right now … No one likes that we lost, but they all know we’ve had an awesome year and we’re a young team and we’re going to be back.”
