McCann Tech Gets 10th Win on Senior Night

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – One year after the McCann Tech boys lacrosse team went 1-14, it is 10-3 after Friday’s 11-4 win over Granby.

 

But that is not the reason that fourth-year Marshall Maxwell decided to stick around for a final year at the helm of the Hornets.

 

Nor is the reason the fact that his son, Cole, is a senior on this year’s McCann Tech team.

 

The real reason was evident in Maxwell’s remarks during Friday’s Senior Night ceremony: He loves this team, and they love one another.

 

“When we were 1-16 last year, I told them, it was one of the best teams I ever coached,” Maxwell said. “I thoroughly enjoyed every day coaching that team. It was the worst team I’ve ever coached, record wise, but I had the most fun.

 

“No attitudes, no egos. They genuinely liked one another. I’ve played on some very good teams where people didn’t like one another. I played on some college teams, where we didn’t. But this team? I mean, look at the sidelines. You genuinely see guys who generally want to see each other succeed.

 

“If one guy has seven goals one game, the other guys who usually gets going, if he doesn’t have any goals, he’s fine. He’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ll take five assists.’ So it’s a fun team to coach.”

 

And for the fifth game in a row, it was a successful team to coach after Brayden Villnave scored four goals and Cole Maxwell recorded a hat trick against the Rams.

 

Maxwell’s classmates Parker Hart and Musa Thompson added two goals and a goal and an assist, respectively, and two more members of the 10-man senior class, Brody Rhinemiller and Jack Peckham, combined to stop seven shots in the Hornets’ goal.

 

Granby, which split the first two meetings with McCann Tech in a pair of close games, struck first on Friday night, scoring in the second minute of play.

 

Hart, Villnave and Hart again answered for the Hornets, but a man-up goal for Granby made it a one-goal margin, 3-2, after one quarter.

 

The Hornets took control in the second.

 

First, Villnave scored his second goal of the game on a man advantage in the 16th minute. Then, McCann Tech scored twice in the final minute of the half to go ahead by four: Villnave and Thompson found the back of the net 19 seconds apart to give their team a 6-2 lead.

 

A penalty-filled third quarter that saw both teams have players ejected coupled with a 6 p.m. start had everyone wondering if the game would end before dark.

 

After Cole Maxwell scored three times in the third quarter to help McCann Tech take a 10-3 lead, the dwindling light presented the only drama left to the contest, and the officials opted to play the fourth quarter under running time.

 

Even with the shortened clock, the four goals allowed on Friday were typical for a McCann Tech team that has given up 16 goals during its five-game winning streak.

 

“We’re not a pretty team,” Marshall Maxwell said. “We don’t score a lot of goals. But we really hang our hat on being physical – but trying to do it in a clean, physical way, just playing hard. Disciplined lacrosse.

 

“We try to compete for every ground ball, every loose ball. Every shot is contested, and, with a young defense and a senior goalie, they’re really coming into their own.”

 

And just like the defensive prowess is the result of teamwork on game day, it has been a team effort getting the Hornets to the point where they are ranked third in Class C in the most recent Western Massachusetts Tournament in-season rankings.

 

“My assistants, Paul Lange and Josh Kelly – Paul started the program, and he’s a great asset,” Maxwell said. “Josh Kelly came over two years ago, and I just can’t have a better assistant coaching staff. They’re here. They’re great with the kids. I’m kind of the yeller. They’re kind of the good cops.

 

“But we wouldn’t be where we are right now without them. It was a big commitment from the administration to give us the assets to have a strong program like we are. … And we have 27 kids on the team. Ten are seniors and one is a junior, so there are 16 underclassmen. The future is very bright for this program, and I hope Coach Lange takes over the program after I leave.”

 

McCann Tech (10-3) hosts Mount Greylock on Saturday morning before going to Lenox on Monday.

 

Photos from this game to come.