Tanners get a monkey off their back
Peabody savoring a win over Beverly
P eabody's boys' lacrosse team played in the Greater Boston League for a number of years, but any rivalries were rivalries on paper only.
It took time to develop any animosity toward Waltham.
It took effort to find a game face for Arlington.
But a rivalry with Beverly is pretty much encoded in the Tanners' DNA.
"Every time we step on the field, no matter what the case, even when it was nonleague, their kids saw it as a huge game," said Peabody head coach Kevin Houlden.
All those years that Beverly spent as a North Shore lacrosse predator, Peabody was always the prey.
The Tanners would lose at home to Beverly. On the road to Beverly. On neutral fields. And it would eat at Peabody because the two programs played each other only once a year.
One time that Peabody did beat the Panthers was a 9-8 triple-overtime victory in 2006. The Tanners savored that victory until last Friday, when they had something bigger to celebrate.
After 103 straight conference wins, Friday was the day the Northeastern Conference's dominant team fell to the league's newcomer.
And Houlden had all weekend to eat it up. Houlden has been the Tanners' coach for 13 seasons, and he has had a restaurant, Champions Pub, that has been open in Peabody just as long.
"A few Beverly people came by Friday night to take their lumps," Houlden said, "which I thought was fantastic."
It was a 9-3 win in which everything clicked for Peabody. The Tanners' star goalie, senior Justin Famigletti, came up with 14 saves, and their top scorers, Michael Pennachio (18 goals, 16 assists this season) and Derek West (21 goals, 8 assists), could play in the background while Billy Daly delivered a hat trick.
But it was just one win. And that one win just puts the Tanners in the front of what Houlden sees as a three-team battle for the league championship.
"It seems now that we're the team that teams are chasing," Houlden said, pointing out that as sweet as it was for his 6-2 squad to beat Beverly (5-5), the Tanners have to do it again to win the NEC outright. They also have a sneaky Marblehead team (3-4) to deal with.
"Those second games, it's almost like a league title game every game you play. It's going to be a playoff atmosphere every game because we're going to get every team's best shot."
The Lancers had qualified for the state tournament every year since he started the program in 1996. Every year except last year. And it wasn't just the 5-12 season that bothered him. It was why the Lancers lost.
"I really believed that they had the talent, they could have been a tournament team last year. But I don't think the team ever really jelled to understand how important it was to play," said Mazzei. "I was a little nervous that the young men didn't understand what it meant to wear a Malden Catholic uniform."
Compared to St. John's Prep and BC High and a few other schools in the Catholic Conference, Malden Catholic is still an infant. But in those 12 years, Mazzei has led the Lancers to 11 tournament berths, six straight Catholic Conference titles, and the state final in 2004.
Coming into this season, he wanted that team to jell. Seeing where they are at the midway point, he's optimistic.
The Lancers returned from an April vacation trip to New York with a 13-2 win over Xaverian of Brooklyn that upped their record to 7-2. They make the trip every year, but usually to the country's lacrosse heartland of Maryland.
"It's a great experience for the team," Mazzei said. "Brings them together."
The timing could not have been better. The Lancers had St. John's Prep waiting almost as soon as they got home. Today they play Xaverian, and they have a game with Chelmsford on Saturday.
Led by his tricaptains Derek Earp (a senior midfielder who has won 90 percent of his faceoffs and scored 26 points), Christian Roberto (who leads the team with 28 points after switching from midfielder to attack), and Ryan Curtis (a senior defensive midfielder who has shored up backfield), the team is improving every game, Mazzei said, but this next stretch of games is the litmus test.
"We've got a long way to go and it's going to depend on how it plays out over the course of the next two weeks."
The three captains are the only players left from the Lancers' last Catholic Conference championship team, and their pride in the program helped ease whatever tension Mazzei had coming into this season, because that pride has trickled down to the younger players.
"The good thing about all of the young men at MC this year, especially my 12 seniors, is that they have bought into the tradition," Mazzei said. "They've made it clear to the entire team that they're playing for a team that's rich in history. They're really proud of it, and I think they're playing that way this year."
Julian Benbow may be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.
