The Londonderry High girls’ lacrosse squad’s rather rough and frustrating 2018 season came to a close with a lopsided Division I quarterfinal-round tournament loss to a top-seeded Pinkerton Academy contingent which had already bested the Lady Lancers pretty handily twice during the regular season.
Coach Scott Walden’s eighth-ranked Londonderry crew hung tight with the Lady Astros during the early-going, and the score was knotted up at 1-1 with nearly four minutes gone. But LHS grad Rob Daziel then saw his tough academy crew pot no less than seven consecutive goals on the way to a commanding 9-3 halftime lead.
Pinkerton then outscored its guest by a 7-2 margin in the second half in taking the match and ending Londonderry’s season with a lopsided 16-5 decision.
Daziel – who was the first Londonderry High All-American lacrosse player back in the early 1980’s – and his 18-1 charges are aiming at returning to the very top of the D-I mountain after seeing the Souhegan High Lady Sabers of Amherst snag the crown last spring.
The rival Lady Lancers and Lady Astros met up twice during the 2018 regular season, with Pinkerton snaring a 14-2 success in game one in Derry on April 27 and then a somewhat tighter 17-9 victory in Beeman Trophy play at LHS a week later.
Hence, quite understandably the academy side rolled into the tourney quarterfinal with plenty of confidence about what it could do against Londonderry with somebody’s season on the line, and PA got the job done against a Lady Lancers’ crew which had recently lost its starting goalie Morgan Brutus to a broken arm.
Pinkerton scored the game’s first goal just 47 seconds into the match, but Londonderry’s Jenna Stowell knotted the score at 1-1 two minutes later.
However, the Astros then netted those seven straight goals to make a statement and knock the wind out of their opponents.
Along with the aforementioned goal by Stowell, the Lady Lancers received first half tallies from Meghan Jackes (assisted by Sarah Duarte) and Allie Marsh.
Londonderry would only score from two shots in the second half – to Pinkerton’s seven goals – with Grace Chicko netting both of them.
Lady Lancers’ goalie Hannah Paradis faced some 22 shots and turned six of them aside in taking over duties in the LHS crease for the injured Morgan Brutus.
Londonderry finished its campaign with a 7-12 overall record.