Big fourth quarter lifts Pinkerton boys lacrosse past Billerica (video)

BILLERICA, Mass. - There was one thing that Brian O'Reilly was worried about heading into Wednesday's game between his Pinkerton Academy boys lacrosse team and Billerica.

Would the Astros be able to match the Indians' physical play?

As long as James Tulley was on the field for Pinkerton, the answer was yes.

Tulley scored seven goals and added three assists, as he helped the Astros match Billerica's physical style on the way to a 20-12 win. Ryan Auger added four goals and an assist as Pinkerton (4-0) used a 7-1 run in the fourth quarter to pull away.

"I was worried about the physicality watching them before," O'Reilly said. "I was concerned with the game could get away from us, and the kids being kids, could do stupid things.

"(Tulley) likes physicality and it gets him charged up. It just plays into his wheelhouse. He's a top-notch player. He's very deceptive and when you want to play physical, he actually likes that."

Five of Tulley's goals came in the first half, as Billerica (4-3) made adjustments at halftime to try to shut down the Astros senior captain. Those changes just opened things up for other players to step up.

"We had a tough time maintaining him and he was all over the field making plays," Billerica coach Craig Flynn said. "We made a change at halftime, tried to lock him off so he couldn't touch the ball. They just beat us all over the field, faceoffs, groundballs, they just outplayed us."

Pinkerton also got two goals and an assist from Brett Datillo and Chris Valentine scored twice while Alex Sturgess made 10 saves.

Gus Gobiel led the Indians with three goals and Drew Laundry had two goals and two assists, as Billerica rallied in the third quarter to make things interesting.

The Astros closed the first half on a 4-0 run to turn a two-goal game into a 10-4 lead, with Tulley netting three of the goals and assisting on another. A goal by Auger to open the third put Pinkerton up 11-4 and the Astros were still up seven, 12-5, when Billerica started its come back.

The Indians closed the quarter on a 5-1 run, scoring all five goals in the final 5:08 of the quarter, including one with seven seconds left that made it 13-10.

"We've got tough kids who will always keep fighting back," Flynn said. "We felt comfortable and confident on offense, we just had to get the ball on our offensive end of the field. They were dominating the faceoffs and we were having a tough time getting it on offense."

Three of the goals during that run came with Pinkerton a man-down, something that plagued the Astros all game.

"We gave up 12 and probably seven of those were man-down goals," O'Reilly said. "That's unacceptable. A lot of it has to do with conditioning. When I say it's an attitude thing, I mean hustling attitude. When you're down a man, you've got to move, and we didn't. We stood around and they've got some good sticks."

Pinkerton won the faceoff to open the fourth quarter and it took 49 seconds for Tulley to give the Astros a four-goal lead, starting the 7-1 run. Two minutes later, a bad clearing attempt left Valentine alone in front of the goal and he scored to make it 15-10.

Billerica got one back on a goal by Daniel Canniff, but Pinkerton scored five in a row in a span of 4:21 to go up 20-11 and put the game away.

The Astros return to action on Thursday as they host Manchester Central.