By Chris Paul
The Londonderry High School Boys Lacrosse team is moving on to the semifinals in the Division I state championship after a 9-3 quarterfinal victory over the Merrimack High School squad over the weekend.
With only one game being played in the first round bracket of the state championship games, the Lancers tournament started in the quarterfinals, with a game against the number five seeded Tomahawks at LHS on Saturday afternoon.
The LHS team entered the tourney as the number four seed and wound up making pretty quick work of their MHS opponent with a 9-3 victory.
The Lancers took a 3-1 lead after one quarter and finished the half leading 4-1.
Two LHS goals in the third brought the contest to 6-1 with just one period remaining. In the final quarter, Londonderry added three more goals to Merrimack’s two for the one-sided win.
Lancer junior Nathan Pedrick had three goals in the game, scoring one in all but the first period.
Senior John Baumann started the scoring in the first with fellow senior Josh DeFranzo getting the second goal of the game shortly after.
Merrimack got one back at 5:25 in the first, but Baumann answered with his second at 4:21 to finish the scoring in the first.
The second quarter was fair quiet for both side, but Pedrick scored his first of the game at 2:32 before the halftime break.
Colby Walden made a number of stops in goal for Londonderry in that period.
In the third, Pedrick made it 5-1 at the eight minute mark and Noah Malcolm added another just over a minute later for the 6-1 lead.
Malcolm, DeFranzo and Pedrick all tacked on one goal each in the final quarter for the 9-3 win.
The Lancers were scheduled to face the number one seed in the bracket on Wednesday, June 8, at the Bill Ball Stadium against Exeter High School.
The game was scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m.
Londonderry suffered two lopsided losses when they faced Exeter during the regular season, so the challenge to move onto the finals will be a major endevor.