NATICK – The venues form a line just west of West Street. Sassamon Trace. A rink called Chase. And Memorial Field, where Alex Peck piles goals at a furious pace.
He's never bland - and always with a stick in his hand.
The prose of Peck’s high school career as a three-sport athlete includes a surprising final line. Be sure to watch No. 18 fire goals into the net this spring – much as he did, wearing the same number, during the winter on skates – because this is it.
The talented two-way hockey player who scores “jaw-dropping” lacrosse goals was asked a seemingly obvious question after Tuesday’s lax win over Framingham: which sport will you play in college?
The Natick High senior captain’s reply dropped another jaw.
“I’m not playing any sports,” Peck said.
Peck will attend the University of Tampa, which has the top-ranked Division 2 men’s lacrosse team (14-0) in the country. The Florida school does not offer hockey but there are 45 golf courses within 15 minutes of the Gulf Coast city. And Peck was a Bay State Conference All-Star as a sophomore golfer and placed fourth in the 2021 New England PGA Junior Tour Player of the Year standings.
But his varsity career is coming to an end this spring.
“I just couldn’t really figure it out,” said Peck, who did not play high school golf as a senior. “I might play club sports.”
Putting the sticks away will not be easy.
“I dedicated the last 10 years on the lacrosse field and 15 on the hockey ice,” Peck said, “so it’s going to be tough.”
Peck scored 19 goals in his first four games for Natick’s undefeated lacrosse team, including eight against Foxborough. He scored 15 goals – including four shorthanded and five game-winners – on the Chase Arena ice for a team he also captained.
His creativity with a stick in his hands is obvious in both sports.
“Alex is that kid that I would hate to coach against,” Natick boys lacrosse coach Nate Kittler said. “He does something, and you think you have it figured out, and he just has something else in his bucket.”
His intangible skills also stand out.
His hockey coach, Karl Infanger, called Peck “Natick’s Patrice Bergeron,” referring to the former Bruins captain who retired in 2023. “He’s just a tremendous leader. He carries himself the proper way. When you join the hockey brotherhood – part of the fraternity that’s world-wide – you have to hold yourself to a higher standard, and he exemplifies that standard.”
Peck scored the game-winning goal when the Natick hockey team defeated Weymouth at Chase in the playoffs in late February. On Tuesday against Framingham, just a few hundred feet away, he dazzled the home crowd again on a chilly night more suited for the ice.
