Pilgrim handles Vets in final meeting

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 5/26/16

Pilgrim and Warwick Vets played their final regular-season, league matchup on Monday night, but ironically it was the youngest rivalry between the two schools. The Pats have only had a boys' lacrosse team since

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Pilgrim handles Vets in final meeting

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Pilgrim and Warwick Vets played their final regular-season, league matchup on Monday night, but ironically it was the youngest rivalry between the two schools.

The Pats have only had a boys’ lacrosse team since last season, but the rivalry got off to a strong start in 2015 when the ’Canes took down Pilgrim in overtime.

Pilgrim would have the last laugh, though, defeating Vets 18-4 on senior night. Senior Nolan McCusker and junior Steve Pezzullo each notched five goals to pace the Pats.

“It was just important to send the seniors off on a high note,” Pilgrim head coach Blake Simpson said. “We just wanted to have fun and still keep it competitive as well.”

Early on, it looked as though Vets could make things interesting when it took a 2-1 lead in the first quarter. Junior Mike Isles tied the game with a low shot at the 5:37 mark, and 16 seconds later senior Chris Grundy put the ’Canes on top. Pilgrim goalkeeper Tyler Balutowski tried to clear the ball, but a close-by Grundy’s stick got in the way and the ball bounced into the net.

The Pats would find their rhythm after that point.

Pilgrim managed 12 unanswered goals stretching into the halfway point of the third quarter, putting away any hopes of a ’Canes comeback. McCusker got the scoring going with five minutes to go in the first, putting away a shot to tie the game while surrounded by defenders.

He tacked on another goal in the closing minutes to put Pilgrim ahead for good. Vets junior goalkeeper Kyle Gray couldn’t field a loose ball in front of the net, and McCusker got to it in time to flip it by him.

From there, the Pats’ sticks caught fire. Pilgrim barraged Vets with eight goals in the second quarter to take an 11-2 lead into the break. McCusker got the action going just 18 seconds in, putting a close-range shot past Gray. Seniors Elias Pariseau and Cameron Gagnon and junior Patrick Reilly also each tallied goals before the halfway point of the quarter.

Pezzullo and McCusker took over to close out the second. Pezzullo picked up a ground ball and was left unmarked at the 6:22 mark, beating Gray to put Pilgrim ahead 8-2. McCusker got physical a minute later, knocking down Isles to strip the ball, grabbing the grounder and firing a shot into the twine.

“Big game for us,” McCusker said. “Even though we didn’t make playoffs and all that, it was good to come out, have a good game and win for our last game of the season.”

The lead kept ballooning as Vets failed to find an answer for Pezzullo, no matter how many men it assigned to him. The crafty junior weaved past three defenders on the right post, finding an open lane to the front of the net for another goal.

With Pilgrim on the man-advantage a few minutes later, Pezzullo wasted no time. Just eight seconds into the Isles penalty, Pezzullo whipped a shot past Gray to give Pilgrim an 11-2 cushion.

Simpson kept Pezzullo and McCusker in for the second half despite the lead, and they continued to produce. Vets held Pilgrim off for the first five minutes, but Pezzullo was able to tack on another to extend the unanswered streak.

“I’m not really sure,” Simpson said of why he decided to roll out his starters for the second half. “With Pezzullo and Nolan still in the game I figured they’d get the double team and then dish it off, but as soon as they put one more in each, I pulled them.”

The ’Canes would eventually end their drought, but Pilgrim put the nail in the coffin in the final seconds of the quarter. A long-range pass found its way to McCusker, who charged past the Vets defense and scored with 11 seconds left. The goal gave the Pats a 14-3 lead and allowed them to coast into the fourth quarter.

“He struggled a little bit early on in the year, but in the last two weeks he really turned it on and had multiple-goal games,” Simpson said of McCusker. “It’s huge.”

While the two sides have only played a few games against each other, the marks of the classic Pilgrim-Vets rivalry were there since that overtime game from a year ago.

“It started off what would have been a great rivalry,” Vets head coach Alex Gregson said. “More so than Toll Gate, I think Pilgrim would have been the cross-town rival that we would be gunning for every year. It’s similar kinds of schools. I teach at Pilgrim, I know most of the kids on the team. It’s the natural rival.”

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  • Justanidiot

    Repeating my thought about high school sports in Warwick, I think that with consolidation the Pilgrim team should be renamed the Hurricanes. A much better name than the Patriots and would honor both schools traditions.

    Just a serious thought from an idiot.

    Thursday, May 26, 2016 Report this