There are many attractions on the North Shore as spring moves into full bloom and summer begins to show signs of life. The trees are full of green; the air has a distinct liveliness to it; but most importantly, lacrosse season begins for athletes. The Cape Ann League is one of the more competitive conferences for lacrosse on the North Shore, and the race to become league champions is well underway in the 2017 season.

At the forefront of the Cape Ann League race is the two time defending CAL Champion, the Ipswich Tigers, with a record of 11-2 as of 5/18/17. Despite an earlier 18-2 loss to the Tigers earlier in the season, the Hamilton-Wenham Generals follow just behind the Tigers with the same conference record and an overall record of 11-1. The Generals are lead by Junior attack-man Andrew Riccio, who leads the league in assists and Senior Captain, Joseph Lattanzi, who is a force in the midfield. The Tigers recently experienced a 9-8 slip up loss to the Triton Vikings that evened the Tigers’ conference standings with the Generals. Ipswich co-captain, Killian Morrissey, spoke of the loss to Triton, stating, “We had a bad pregame and just didn’t play like ourselves today.” The Tigers followed up their loss to the Triton Vikings with a 21-2 beating on the Lynnfield Pioneers.

Some other teams to look out for in the Cape Ann League are the Pentucket Sachems, who have a record of 8-2 and are lead by senior midfielder and captain Liam Sheehy. The Sachems added an impressive win to their resume in a 6-5 victory over Masconomet in their most recent game. Next, is Newburyport who holds a 9-4 record but has impressive wins over both Pentucket and Masconomet. Not to be overlooked is North Reading, who has an 11-4 record and some young players who have been stepping up on the offensive end for the Hornets, such as sophomore attack-man Matt Trabor. Lastly, the Triton Vikings are very much in the race with an 8-5 record and impressive wins over both Ipswich and North Reading earlier in the season. The Vikings have gotten help from senior midfielder Liam Spillane, who can shoot from all over, and senior attack-man Sam Aponas, who is a shifty player behind the net.

We were able to speak to the Ipswich Tigers’ head coach Glenn Foster about his team’s season thus far and get some insight on how he believes the Cape Ann League will shape up with the season winding down. Coach Foster stated, “I think if we can continue to work hard in practice and not get complacent, then we can take care of the rest of our league games and win the Cape Ann. We have a tough couple games against Newburyport and North Reading, but if we can take care of those I think we’ll be in good shape. As far as tournament standings, we want the number one seed.” We followed up by talking about some of the recent success the Tigers have had in making it to the state semi finals these past two years. We asked coach Foster what he would attribute that success to and he stated, “There’s a core group of kids that have been on the team since they were freshman and they have really taken on strong leadership roles. They get kids playing in the off-season because they know what it takes to get what they want.” The Tigers will continue their journey towards the state championship playing at Groton Dunstable this Saturday, May 20th.