‘A Beautiful Picture’: Cape Tech Boys Lacrosse Captures Vocational Championship

BOURNE – Jack Botelho was feeling nervous, and as the Cape Cod Tech boys lacrosse team was about to enter a game May 27 with stakes not seen by the program for a long time, the senior goaltender told his coach as much.

Gibson St. John, who got his start on the Cape training goalies, told Botelho the same thing his coach when he was a kid used to tell him: it’s about having fun — treat the vocational championship game against Upper Cape Tech like any other.

With the Crusaders hanging onto a two-goal lead for most of the fourth quarter, Botelho played calm, collected and, as a result, lights out. A burst of clutch saves helped deliver the 9-6 win for Cape Tech and the MVADA Small Division championship. It was easily the biggest win for the program in several years.

“It's a surreal experience,” Botelho said. “I've never experienced playoffs, let alone a championship, so it's like, wow, man, this program has gone so far. I remember freshman year we didn't even have subs, and now we're winning championships.”

The Crusaders went winless when Botelho was a freshman. That was also St. John’s first year with the team (he spent a season as an assistant before becoming head coach). Entering 2026, Cape Tech had won four games combined across the previous three seasons. They tripled that number this spring by going 12-6 and qualifying for the MIAA playoffs for the first time in nine years. Then they won a vocational state title for good measure.

St. John, after the game, said he was “overjoyed.”

“Watching these kids go from the first year I started four years ago to now and improving every single year, whether the win column showed it or not — they put it all together,” St. John said. “I used an analogy in the huddle, talking about building a puzzle one piece at a time, and we put the last piece of the puzzle in today for this championship, and it was awesome to see it come together. It's a beautiful picture.”

Cape Tech and Upper Cape Tech had already played each other twice this year heading into the vocational championship last week. The Rams won the first game 12-5 — an April meeting in Pleasant Lake. They also won the second game 13-9 at home on May 14.

But on the same field less than two weeks later, the Crusaders were a different team. Multiple players attributed the shift to the group’s pre-game hype. They have a prayer they say, according to sophomore Miles Yerkes, that pumps everyone up to the same level.

“I feel like it really flipped in our heads today, what was going on and what we're doing for our school and who we're really representing, and we just pulled through,” Yerkes said. “Pulled through for our fans. Pulled through for our families.”

Cape Tech jumped out to a 3-0 lead late in the first quarter. Senior Talon Joia, a key midfielder, opened the account for the Crusaders, quickly followed by Yerkes, then Joia again. Joia finished with five goals; Yerkes had four. 

Upper Cape Tech answered, knotting the title game at 4-4 halfway through the second quarter. Cape Tech felt they had performed as a second-half team throughout the year, but this was a four-quarter affair. Later in the first half, a Yerkes score coming from behind the goal line reclaimed the lead for the Crusaders, who proceeded to keep the Rams at bay for the duration. 

Botelho staved off an Upper Cape Tech barrage in the last minutes, dropping to a knee to ricochet bouncer after bouncer. His individual development as a goalie reflected the evolution of the program overall. A win in April earlier this season put the Crusaders above .500 for the first time since 2022, when they were briefly 2-1.

“The kid went from a defenseman with zero experience and turned into a keeper that has a 60 percent save percentage and is one of the best goalies I've seen,” St. John said.

Botelho, for his part, said he wouldn’t be playing lacrosse were it not for St. John.

To reach the title game, Cape Tech first defeated South Shore Tech 13-5 in the first round of the vocational playoffs on May 20. Yerkes had seven goals, Joia had four goals and three assists, junior Ryan Delaney scored multiple times, Botelho had 12 saves, and senior Sam Da Silva had 18 faceoff wins.

The season continued after the championship for the Crusaders with their first MIAA state tournament appearance since 2017. They fell 16-9 in the first round Monday to No. 9 Hamilton-Wenham (11-5) as Division 4’s No. 24 seed. 

Regardless of the result, they viewed the game as an opportunity to just keep playing lacrosse together. They gleefully hoisted the MVADA trophy skyward last week, recognizing where the program was in only recent memory and not wanting the feelings to end.

“It came down to heart and playing as a family,” St. John said. “That's just what it is. We preach the family mentality, the ‘Crusader Way,’ and they did it. I mean to me, this is what fun and family looks like. This is it.”