FRANKLIN, Mass. – After missing out on the experience of a freshman season on varsity, Franklin sophomore attackers Luke Davis and Aaron Wentling have been thrown right into the fire this spring. Both have shown more than capable of not only contributing, but excelling at this level.
In Wednesday night’s Div. 1 South quarterfinal against Wellesley at Pisini Stadium, the sophomores were back at it, scoring all but one of Franklin’s goals in a 10-5 victory that sends the Panthers to the sectional semifinal for the second straight year and third time overall.
“Jayden had a big game and Luke did too,” said Franklin coach Lou Verrochi about his attacking crew of Consigli, Davis, and senior playmaker Matt Lazzaro. “All three of those kids are excellent. That’s an excellent attack unit and they’re very unselfish. It was just a good win.”
With Lazzaro being tightly man-marked and struggling to get any touches on the ball, it was up to the younger guys to step up and fill the void. Consigli got things started when he took a pass from Lazzaro in the middle and was able to finish despite taking a big hit. Six minutes later and Consigli got a pass from his older brother Joe Consigli and used an effective fake to open a space to shoot at to double the Franklin lead.
The offense was moving well and getting decent looks but struggling to find the back of the net largely due to the play of Wellesley goalie Chase Wesley. The senior made six of his 18 saves in the first quarter alone, setting the tone early with a close-range stop on Joe Consigli, then kicking aside a rare shot from Lazzaro, and denying the Franklin star on a wraparound effort.
“He stood on his head didn’t he?” Verrochi said. “I mean, he had how many ring off his helmet? It could’ve been much worse, I thought their goalie was excellent.”
Wellesley was also controlling the face-off ‘X’. Christian Grosso won 4-of-5 face-offs in the first and it helped the Raiders get back into the game. After Carl Callahan scored with a shot on the run to cut the Franklin lead to one, Grosso won the face-off and Timothy Hall scored in transition to tie things. It was two goals in just 12 seconds.
Emmett Lyne made it a three-goal streak for Wellesley with a bounce shot a minute into the second. Franklin’s defense, led by poles Kyle Palmieri, Ben Harvey, Zach Harvey, and Luke Cashin, started to lock down and limited Wellesley’s scoring chances. After scoring three times in a three minute span, the Raiders would score only twice more in the final 34 minutes of the game.
“That’s a credit to Timmy Montgomery, he did a great job on the scout and told them what they were going to do,” Verrochi said about his team’s defensive effort. “We got the matchups that we wanted. That was what we thought might be a weak point but it has progressed into a really good defensive unit and Jack Maguire is excellent in goal.”
On the other end, Franklin continued to create chances but Wesley was holding the Panthers at bay. One sequence saw the ball circle from Davis to Jayden Consigli to Lazzaro to Joe Consigli in space only for Wesley to again keep it out.
Three minutes into the second, Davis got on the board with his first of the game, tying it at 3-3. Owen Kielty hit the post and Tim Walsh had Wesley stop a point-blank effort before Davis was able to put the Panthers back in front. Grabbing a loose ball following a shot that was blocked, Davis fired into the open net.
The visitors tied the game early in the third, with Lyne picking out Andrew Fantasia right in front. Maguire (nine saves) came up big to deny Wellesley on a chance right in front of goal and then Kielty smacked iron for the second time in the game. Lyne put the Raiders in front, 5-4, with a man-up goal midway through the third.
Davis had a quick response for the Panthers, getting his hands free and ripping a shot past Wesley. The Consiglis nearly combined again, only for Joe to see yet another shot come back off the Wellesley goalie, and then Davis put the Panthers ahead to stay. With 2:48 left in the quarter, he got hands-free again on the left side and fired another bullet past the goalie.
Wellesley almost tied the game a minute into the fourth after a behind-the-back pass by Callahan hit Lyne at the back post but he couldn’t beat the crossbar.
It took Franklin almost five minutes to find an important insurance goal. Joe Consigli showed good vision to catch his brother making an intelligent cut across the crease and the attacker picked a spot just inside the post. Less than a minute later, Davis stole a hurried outlet pass and got the ball up to Kielty, who lashed a shot just under the bar.
Consigli added his fourth goal of the night with 4:48 to play and Davis wrapped up the scoring with his fifth goal a little over a minute later. Lazzaro created the final goal with another stolen outlet and quick pass ahead to give Davis a one-on-one with the goalie.
Verrochi was proud of his team, especially the younger players for coming through in a tight, pressure-packed fourth quarter, something that has been rare this season. “We’ve been ahead almost all year long,” he said. “We just haven’t had games like that, which is good, we needed it because that’s what we’re going to get from Hingham for sure.
Franklin (17-0) will try to secure the program’s first-ever sectional final appearance when it hosts No. 4 seed Hingham on Friday night.
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