Seniors Lead Young KP Lax Squad

Approximately 3 ½ months ago when King Philip athletes began picking up the lacrosse sticks for the spring, first year coach Jamie Stefanini knew that he had a relatively young team, but figured they could still win 12-14 games despite the toughness of their schedule. The Warriors did just that, finishing at 12-8 while earning a nine seed in the Division 1 South Tournament.
Having only six seniors as part of their team, King Philip looked to the experienced athletes for guidance throughout the season. Leading the way into the post-season was 4-year starting goalie Paul Macrina. The senior captain was named to the Hockomock All-Star team as well as an Eastern Mass All-Star.
“Paul had 210 saves while giving up 132 goals in 20 games for an average of 6.6 goals a game,” the KP Coach said. “Without him we would have had no shot whatsoever in making the tournament.”
In addition to Macrina guarding the KP net, Stefanini also got key performances from his other five seniors: defender Conor Khung, long stick midfielder Zach D’Amico, attacker Tim Watson, midfielder John Deluca and attacker Ben Palmer.
Watson, an Eastern Mass and Hockomock League All-Star, tallied 54 goals and 25 assists for the Warriors, giving the coach much more than he anticipated.
“Tim’s an exceptional athlete, but I really didn’t think he’d accomplish this much,” Stefanini said. “He definitely exceeded my expectations, while scoring some big goals when we really needed them and stepped up his game in the fourth quarter.”
Another senior that was key in KP’s scoring attack was Deluca, who netted 21 goals and added 8 assists on the season. According to the coach, Deluca’s a horse who can get the ball from one end of the field to the other and set up the Warrior’s attackers. D’Amico, another Eastern Mass and Hockomock League All-Star, had 9 goals and 4 assists and 105 ground balls, but was much more instrumental, not only taking face-offs, but guarding the opposition’s best defender.
Rounding out the seniors were Khung, a defender that usually stacked up against the opponents best attacker and Palmer, a midfielder who was forced to move to attacker.
Outside the seniors, Stefanini found a few surprises in junior Michael Curtin, a solid defender with a good outlet pass, and sophomore Colin DeVellis, who posted 22 goals and 36 assists during the Warrior run.
“I knew Colin was going to be good, but not this good, this quickly,” the KP Coach said. “A lot of his success was due to the fact that everyone knew what Tim (Watson) was capable of doing so they made it hard on him. We, in turn, focused on getting Colin the ball and he took it from there.”
King Philip needed to come out strong and play four full quarters of lacrosse in order to edge Natick 6-3 in their first tournament contest. Unfortunately, in their next game, Boston College High turned the pages on the Warriors and defeated them 6-3.