EASTHAM — Local hockey legend Logan Poulin led the Nauset boys lacrosse team to a 14-8 win over Burlington at home on Saturday, April 19, proving that his range as an athlete extends well beyond the ice.
Poulin, the Truro senior who handles faceoffs for his team, scored the first goal of the game less than five seconds after it began — carrying the ball unassisted into the attack area after a duel and then lobbing it cleanly into Burlington’s net. He won nearly every faceoff he participated in, taking decisive possession of the ball almost every time the referee dropped it.
“There isn’t really a secret to the faceoff,” Poulin said after the game, “just repetition.” He’s been playing lacrosse since he was nine, Poulin said — which on this Nauset team is considered a late start.
Nauset held the lead for most of the game, scoring thrice more in the first quarter after Burlington tied the score 1-1 about three minutes after Poulin’s opening salvo. The score tightened during the second, with the Red Devils tallying six points against Nauset’s four to end the quarter at 8-7 in the Warriors’ favor. Burlington won the final point of the first half two seconds before the buzzer sounded.
But the Warriors shored up their defenses in the second half, with senior goalie Frank Rogers — who was filling in for injured Zach Coelho — blocking a number of impressive shots from Burlington with apparent ease. Rogers let in only one more goal by Burlington in the whole second half, while the rest of the Warriors went on to score six more times.
“It was Rogers who won us the game,” Coach Jesse Peno told the Independent. “In the end we really picked our game up and did what we had to do.”
A highlight was junior defender Brendan Peno’s interception of a lengthy lob by Burlington’s goalie in the final minutes of the fourth quarter: he made a clean pass to freshman attacker Jack Peno, his brother, who flung the ball into the net with a confidence that recalled Poulin’s opening shot.
Saturday’s win brought the team’s record to 4-3; they won another game on Tuesday, April 22 against Central Catholic High School.
“We try to schedule tough, so our power ranking is high,” Peno said. “Burlington was a D3 playoff team last year, and we know we might see each other again down the road.”
Many of the players seem to share that mentality. “We tell ourselves to just keep it rolling and see where we go,” said senior midfielder Joey Berardi, who will play for Assumption University in Worcester this fall.
Poulin said he had been planning to go to the University of Vermont on a lacrosse scholarship, but he decommitted a few weeks ago after the hockey team won the state championship.
“I started to get a lot of looks, a lot of recognition after that,” Poulin said. “My ultimate goal now is to play hockey juniors and get a division one offer.”
