Gus Greene stomachs the heat, carries Cohasset boys’ lacrosse to last-second win for Division 4 title

WORCESTER — In the final minute of Saturday’s Division 4 boys’ lacrosse final, the heat had finally taken its toll on Cohasset star attack Gus Greene. He took a rare trip to the sideline with an upset stomach.

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His coach, Steve Rotondi, wasn’t going to let that be the end of his story.

“[Rotondi] comes in my ear, ‘Puke it up, you’ve got more left to give,’” Greene said. “It brings you back to practice where, literally yesterday, we were running sprints in the heat just to get us ready for this game.”

Greene did indeed have more left to give. With the score knotted at 6 and 23 seconds left, the senior went airborne to rifle the winner into the bottom left corner, propelling the top-seeded Skippers to a hard-fought, 7-6 triumph over No. 2 Nantucket at Worcester State.

It was the last of three goals for Greene, who shared hat-trick honors with senior midfielder Max Monahan. Tim Donovan netted the other goal.

“[Greene’s] the best player we’ve had come through this program in a long time,” Rotondi said. “If I told him to pick up a long pole and play defense, that’s what he would’ve done. We gave him the green light, all his teammates want him to have the ball, and he got it done.”

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Cohasset (19-5) exorcised its demons from last year’s state final loss to Norwell, winning the program’s seventh championship.

Nantucket (19-4) did not make it easy. After ceding three first-quarter goals, the Whalers roared back to equalize twice in the fourth quarter. Noah Stringer, Nolen Mosscrop, and Arann Hanlon scored twice each.

The goalies dried the scoring up in the second half; Jed Seita made eight saves for the Skippers and Jeremy Jenkinson denied nine shots at the other end.

After getting hurt in the first minute of last year’s final, then missing out on the 2025 football Super Bowl last December due to illness, Cohasset senior captain Noah Rafferty played the full game and spearheaded the defensive effort.

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