The accomplishment hadn’t sunk in yet for Matt Treiber.
The Medfield senior played in three straight Division 2 state championships — winning titles in 2014 and 2015 — and Tuesday night at Concord-Carlisle, he helped the Warriors make it four in a row.
“It’s definitely special,’’ Treiber said. “I take it for granted almost.’’
Behind five goals, two assists, and three ground balls from Treiber, Medfield defeated Winchester, 16-4, in the state semifinal to clinch a spot in Saturday’s title game at Boston University. The Warriors (18-5) will take on Hingham (22-5) for the third straight year.
“Winchester’s a good team, I just think we played very well today,’’ Treiber said. “Team ball was all over the place. The offense moved the ball well, we found the open guy. The defense communicated well, they knew their slides. It was just a great team effort today.’’
Medfield senior midfielder John MacLean netted a hat trick, junior attackman Mark Nevin scored twice, and freshman attackman Owen Murphy had one goal and four assists. Senior goalie Kyle Gately made 13 saves.
“[Gately] really helped turn our defense around by making great stops and giving our defense confidence to go out and play and know that he’s behind them,’’ Medfield coach John Isaf said.
Treiber put the Warriors on the board with a wraparound goal just 3:15 into the game and scored his second goal with a point-blank shot with 5:38 to go in the first.
Winchester senior midfielder Dan O’Connell cut the deficit in half just more than a minute later, but Medfield surged in the final minutes of the frame and took a 6-1 lead after one.
“That’s been our focus all year, just to jump on teams,’’ Treiber said.
Treiber scored his third goal with 3:43 left to play in the second off of a feed from Murphy. The freshman found Treiber again less than two minutes later for his fourth tally of the game, giving the Warriors (16-6) an 8-1 lead at halftime.
Winchester outscored Medfield, 3-2, in the third to make it 10-4 with 12 minutes to go, but Medfield cruised in the final quarter.
“We played our best game of the season today,’’ Isaf said. “Now we’re going to have to kick it up a notch and play our best game of the season on Saturday.’’
Division 3 boys semifinals
Dover-Sherborn 16, Ipswich 3 — Bigger. Stronger. Faster. That’s how Dover-Sherborn compared with its northern neighbor, Ipswich, in the Division 3 state semifinals at Concord-Carlisle.
The Raiders toppled a Tigers squad that had only suffered a single loss. Sophomore Peter Davies and juniors Bailey Laidman and Jack Mahoney each notched four goals, and senior Will Spangenbergscored three. Junior Hunter Gregory also added a score.
“They were focused on trying to get back to the state title,’’ coach Brian McLaughlin said . In spite of being the favorite, Dover-Sherborn never appeared to slow down, even as the game moved out of reach.
“We’ve got a good senior leader group,’’ McLaughlin added.
Davies, Laidman, and Mahoney led a balanced attack that spread out the Tigers defense and zipped the ball back and forth effortlessly until an open man was found.
They took advantage of their height, launching high passes in front of the net to set up cutting players for one-timers, and also flashed speed while outrunning Ipswich up the field on breakaways.
On defense, junior goalie Ross Barnard kept the Tigers at bay, while Spangenberg and John Hargreaves and Matt Ambrosino repeatedly dispatched any Ipswich attacker daring enough to approach the net.
They pestered Ipswich players as soon as they received the ball, often aggressively stretching their defense far from the net.
“Defense has been improving all year,’’ McLaughlin said. “Ross did a nice job, had a couple of great saves today.’’
McLaughlin also said it didn’t hurt that this wasn’t his team’s first foray into the state semifinals.
The reigning Division 3 champs looked poised. “We’ve played a lot of big games this year,’’ he said.
He cited the team’s run in the Coaches Challenge Cup, and matchups with Division 2 Central/East regional champions Medfield as being important to his team.
Dover-Sherborn will play Hanover Saturday at BU in the Division 3 state championship.
Division 2 boys semifinals
Hingham 10, Longmeadow 9 — Senior midfielder Mark Tocchio scored with five seconds remaining to lift the Harbormen past Longmeadow and into the state title game. Hingham fought back to tie Longmeadow with six minutes left and took a 9-8 lead on Frank Higgins’s goal. But Longmeadow tied it, setting up Tocchio’s heroics.
Division 3 boys semifinals
Grafton 7, Hanover 6 — Brendan Coates scored on a pass from Hunter Fraser and Grafton advanced to the state title game.
Grafton will again face Dover-Sherborn, which beat the Indians, 14-2, in last year’s title game. Hanover finished the season 17-5.
Division 1 girls semifinals
Westwood 12, Longmeadow 6— The Wolverines (23-1) are headed back to the state final after knocking off Longmeadow. Jillian Reilly and Leah Nocera each scored four goals.
Westwood, which had an 8-3 lead at the half, lost to Longmeadow, 10-9, in double OT in last year’s state final.
Division 2 girls semifinals
Norwell 17, Groton-Dunstable 6 — Stephanie Croke had five goals and an assist, Riley Bergholtz added four goals and two assists, and Hailey Berglund scored twice as the Clippers topped the Crusaders in a Division 2 state semifinal at Foley Stadium in Worcester. Norwell will face Walpole in the final.
Groton-Dunstable’s Sophie Irby (two assists) and Ellie Eisenklam each scored twice, while Sammi Smith and Sara Walsh added goals and Maria Antonellis made 12 saves.
