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Central's Lavallee wins golf 'Triple Crown'

Central Catholic’s Josh Lavallee watched his Tom Brady motivational videos Tuesday and listened to “Hall of Fame” by the group The Scripts.

“Dedicate yourself and you can find yourself

Standing in the hall of fame

And the world’s gonna know your name.”

The sophomore from Bradford turned in a hall of fame effort to win the Division 2 state title with a 4-over par 74 in raw weather at Marshfield Country Club.

It capped an historic 3-meet postseason stretch for Lavallee, who previously won the MVC Championships and the Division 2 North Sectional.

Lavallee said, “The MVCs gave me some good momentum into the Sectionals. When I won that, I knew I had one more thing to do. I definitely had some nerves today.”

TB12 and the Scripts helped with the nerves and the 6-foot, 150-pound Lavallee did the rest. He drained a clutch 6-foot putt for a bogey on his final hole to hold the lead going into the clubhouse.

Central coach Eric Boucher said, “I’m almost in disbelief. Central has never had a state champ and I think they’ve had golf since the mid-80s. It takes guts and trust in his ability.

“He controls his nerves well and gets it done. He told me I want to win all three. That’s just tough to do. It’s pretty amazing.”

There was drama as three golfers (Hopkinton’s Mitch Marcou and Ryan Lundy and Nauset’s Myles Walther) finished one shot back with 75s.

“This means a lot,” said Lavallee. “I worked hard for this win. I had a couple missed shots but I scrambled my way to victory. There were very tough conditions and a lot of high scores (only 18 of the 106 golfers broke 80).

“A 74 today was pretty good. It was very windy and cold (temperatures around 45 degrees).”

His putter was reliable throughout. And he’s put in the time. The Lavallee family lives by Bradford Country Club and the course is all but a second home. Ironically, one of his mentors is Haverhill coach Kevin Murphy, who owns the course.