Mercer Island Knocks Off Nationally-Ranked Duxbury in Spring Break Tour

wrapped up their cross-country spring break tour with two wins over some of the best teams in the U.S., including an April 6 win over #8 nationally-ranked Duxbury, (Mass.) a first any high school in the state's 33-year history of lacrosse.  

’s Connor Bernal overcame nearly 3 minutes of overtime frustration and a 10-3 loss to Oregon Episcopal last week with a 7-6 walk-off overtime winner for the Islanders (9-2).

“We played calm and confident,” said Mercer Island head coach Ian O’Hearn following his team’s 9th win of the season. “It was a close game the whole way – nobody panicked. We were able to grind it out and come out with a huge win.”

Bernal’s overtime winner came with 45 seconds remaining when Mercer Island finally gained possession after Duxbury controlled the ball – and the Islanders for the first 2 minutes, 47 seconds of overtime. 

With the Islanders in control, O’Hearn called time out and gathered his squad.

“I told (Bernal), he had two options,” O’Hearn said.  “If they put a pole on him, he had to redirect the ball around to another middie. If they put a shortie on him – go to the goal.”

 With a short stick defender tracking Bernal, he followed O’Hearn’s instructions taking it straight to the goal. Rolling back inside, the junior midfielder and put the historic shot into the lower left hand side of the net.

“We were frustrated with the Oregon loss. Coming out here we wanted to focus on playing 48 minutes and getting better,” added O’Hearn. “Getting the loss off our back loosened us up.”

In the first of a three-game, spring break road swing through Massachusetts, the Islanders came out swinging against the state’s top ranked high school team and winner of 6 of the past 7 state titles. Their only second place finish came against St. John’s Prep in last year’s title matchup.

Matching Duxbury goal for goal in the first period, the Islanders held the Green Dragons to just one goal in the first and took a respectable 1-1 tie into the half. In the third, both added 3 goals to take a 4-4 deadlock into the final stanza.

In the fourth, the Islanders Peter Iani netted his only goal of the night to give the Islanders the lead with 4:30 remaining. But again, Duxbury fought back tying the game in the final minute to force the extra period. In overtime, Duxbury won the opening draw and controlled the ball for nearly 3 minutes, before the Islanders finally got their chance.

Bernal and Colton Knebel scored 2 goals and Alex Robbs, Doug Mahony and Iani all had solo shots for the Islanders. Brian Bernstein had 17 saves to keep the Islanders in the game.

Mercer Island suffered an April 8 loss to Concord-Carlisle, 9-5, but bounced back the next evening with a 7-5 win over Lincoln-Sudbury. 

The Boston Herald's Danny Ventura and Jim Clark have a nice write-up of the Sudbury game here.

The Islanders next play Issaquah in an 8 p.m. Friday, April 15 contest at .