DANVERS — Any time Lincoln-Sudbury and St. John’s Prep get together, Eagles coach John Pynchon knows his team has to be at its best to succeed.

On Wednesday at Cronin Memorial Stadium, the defending Division 1 boys lacrosse champions flexed their muscles. Dominating in the faceoff circle to the tune of 16 wins in 19 tries, the Prep outscored the Warriors 7-2 in the second half to pull away to an 11-5 win.

“It really is a great early season test for us,” Pynchon said. “You know they’re going to be well coached and it’s never easy going against them.”

It was a seesaw game for most of the first half before St. John’s took control thanks in large part to the prowess of Will Crawford at the faceoff dot. After helping set up a Cam McCarthy goal for a 4-3 lead, Crawford won a draw clean and took it in himself for a goal and a 5-3 halftime lead.

“Will has been our most consistent player all year,” Pynchon said. “When you have someone that is solid on faceoffs like he’s been, that’s hard to beat.”

That momentum carried over from halftime as the Eagles turned what had been a close game into a runaway before most of the crowd was back in its seats.

The Eagles got the first four shots of the second half and Luke Kelly, Ryan McCarthy, Josh Haarman and Crawford netted each of them against Rex Garozzo. The four-goal outburst took the cumulative time of 117 seconds and turned it into an 8-3 St. John’s lead.

“We were able to string together a couple there in the third quarter and finish the deal,” Pynchon said.

Rex Friedholm completed a hat trick for L-S in the fourth quarter to get the Warriors within 9-5 but a pair of Mac Crawford goals capped the scoring.