After being dominated through the first half of its Division I quarterfinal-round tournament match against the Souhegan High Sabers last weekend, the Londonderry High boys’ lacrosse squad put forth an impressive comeback that just fell short of the desired goal.
First-year coach Sean LeBlanc’s fourth-seeded Lancers were outscored by the visiting, number five Souhegan squad by the tally of 10-2 during the first half of the tourney battle – held at LHS Saturday, June 6 – but anybody who left at halftime missed out on a stellar comeback effort by the hosts. But in the end, Londonderry fell just short in dropping a 10-8 decision that ended its 2015 campaign.
“We battled it back to 10-8, but we just ran out of clock,” lamented LeBlanc. “I am extremely proud of the way the guys battled in the second half. All of the credit goes to my 12 seniors, who totally took over the game in the second half, along with sophomore Tyler Grant at the face-off.”
Facing its nearly insurmountable eight-goal deficit going into half number two, the host Lancers kicked into a far more productive gear and wound up potting six unanswered goals and making the Souhegan crew from Amherst nervous and stressed.
“Shayne Holland scored three straight goals in about two minutes to really get the run going,” said LeBlanc. “The defense stepped up big time in the second half, including getting through two man-down situations.”
Holland led the Lancers with those three goals and one assist for four total points, and single goals were netted by Lewis Carroll, Nick Donnelly, Max Hastings, Devin Brunet, and John Derhak. Dave Wiedenfeld contributed two assists to the close-but-no-cigar performance. Goalie Chris Rowan made nine saves for the LHS side.
In the wake of the tough defeat, LeBlanc was left to ruminate a bit on his squad’s leaders and why the Lancers fell behind in the first half.
“This was a special group of seniors that will have a lasting impact on the program,” he said. “We played most of the top teams in the state early in the season, so it had been a while since we had seen an opponent as talented as Souhegan, which could explain the slow start.”