The Londonderry High girls’ lacrosse squad closed out its 2016 regular season with a couple of exclamation points last week, overpowering the Nashua North Lady Titans in a double-digit victory early in the week and then potting a last-second goal to defeat the streaking, arch-rival Pinkerton Academy Lady Astros by an 11-10 count on the road at the end of the week.
The North crew ended up giving the Lancer squad very little trouble in an 18-4 defeat in the Gate City on Tuesday, May 24. The Lady Titans wound up finishing the regular season with a sub-.500, 8-10 record.
But heading into the Friday road match at Pinkerton, the Lady Lancers had no trouble at all recalling that they’d suffered an 11-10 loss to coach Rob Daziel’s Lady Astros in Londonderry earlier in the regular season. But the fact that the academy stickers hadn’t lost a match in more than a month – putting together a 12-game winning streak in the process – had to make the task that much more daunting.
But the LHS contingent was up to the task, and it battled Pinkerton every step of the way before finally collecting an 11-10 victory of its own when Emily Holland scored with six seconds remaining in regulation time to bust a 10-10 deadlock.
The teams had been knotted up at 6-6 at halftime, and the question of who would walk away with a victory in this tough rematch remained up in the air until Holland produced her last-second heroics off a free position.
“Londonderry played a very good game, and we will continue to improve as we head into the playoffs,” said PA leader Daziel, a former lacrosse All-American at Londonderry High. “We know we can play any of the top teams and be competitive. It’s a matter of executing for a full 50 minutes. We did that last night (against Hanover), but gave Londonderry too many opportunities today.”
Holland ended up leading her Lady Lancers with four goals, Gabby Morris was good for three, Kiersten Hoglund tallied twice, Emily Davison had a goal and an assist, Jill McIntire scored once, and Dominique Breault dished out an assist.
LHS finished the season at 11-7 with three wins in its final four matches, and PA went 14-3. Londonderry drew the sixth seed and was lined up with tough, third-ranked Souhegan in Amherst Wednesday, June 1, after Londonderry Times press time.
The Lancers have an 0-2 record against the Sabers this year, with a 7-3 home loss and a 16-7 loss at Souhegan.
Senior June Cranmer and the LHS girls’ lacrosse squad faced a real test in round one of the tourney this week, facing the third-ranked Souhegan side