The Londonderry High girls’ soccer squad entered last week without having gotten knotted up in a single tie during the 2016 season. And then it happened twice.
The Lady Lancers had to settle for deadlocks with both the Salem High Lady Blue Devils and the Timberlane Regional Lady Owls of Plaistow in a pair of road contests. And those outcomes left the LHS squad with a 6-2-2 season record.
Both Salem and Timberlane had begun the 2016 campaign in excellent fashion. But both were in the midst of skids when they faced off against Londonderry.
The host Salem Lady Blue Devils began the campaign with a 3-0 record, but when the Lady Lancers came to town Tuesday, Sept. 27, the Devils had gone 0-4-1 in their subsequent five matches.
And when Londonderry busted out to a 2-0 lead in the first half – on markers by Kat Rivard from Hailey Laliberte and Lauren Misiaszek from Olivia Stowell – it looked as though another loss was on its way to the Salem side.
But the Lady Devils scored twice in half number two – with the tying tally coming in the last minute of regulation time – and the match score ended up at 2-2.
The Lancers throttled 27 shots on Salem goalies Emily Doucette and Haley Liptrap, but were only able to put two blasts into the netting. LHS goalie Ryann Boudreau made two stops.
In the Friday match in Plaistow against a Timberlane crew that started the 2016 season at 4-0 but had gone a poor 1-4-1 since, the Lady Lancers once again carried a lead to halftime and saw it evaporate in the second half of action on the way to a 1-1 tie.
Freshman standout Stowell scored the Londonderry goal on a set-up from Devyn Enwright in the 31st minute of play. But Timberlane bagged the equalizer nine minutes into the second half.
The locals rapped 13 shots on the Lady Owls’ cage but only scored on one of them, and LHS keeper Boudreau made nine stops her contribution to the effort.
This week’s slate had the Lady Lancers at home against Bedford on Wednesday, Oct. 5, after Londonderry Times press time, followed by a short road trip to the Queen City two days later to face off against Manchester Central.
The girl’s 6-2-2 record puts the team just over the middle of the Division I pack with six games left in the regular season.
Their next two opponents, Bedford and Manchester Central, are tied for the most wins in the division with 9-1 season records.