
A lopsided walloping of the Bishop Guertin Lady Cardinals of Nashua followed by a two-goal loss to the Concord High Crimson Tide last week left Londonderry High girls’ soccer coach Derek Dane and his charges contemplating a .500 record of 2-2 stepping into this week.
But despite the fact that his team’s early-season mark is a tad lackluster, Dane still finds many reasons to be pleased with the work his team did in its first four games.
“Despite our current record, we’re playing some quality soccer,” said Dane. “Our ball-movement is fantastic. Anyone who has seen us play will agree. We have outshot our opponents in every match we’ve played. We need to get better at managing the first and last 10 minutes of each half. We still have a couple of players recovering from injury, and we’re a work in progress. I’m pleased with our progress thus far.”
There were all kinds of reasons for Dane and his Lady Lancers to walk away from their 5-0 home win over winless Guertin (0-4) last Tuesday, Sept. 5 wearing wide grins.
The hosts scored what proved to be the winning goal in the first half, but their lead was somewhat tenuous at 1-0 at halftime.
However, the locals pelted home four more goals in the second half in winning going away.
Olivia Stowell was set up by Laurel Goding for goal number one in minute 28 of the opening half. But coach Dane’s crew would receive extremely quick tallies from Alyssa Anderson (assisted by Darby Dupuis) and Goding (from Anderson) six minutes into the second period to make it a 3-0 match.
Anderson potted her second shot six minutes later, unassisted, to make the score 4-0, and Stowell capped off the scoring two minutes after that after taking a feed from Goding.
The hosts ended up outshooting their guests by a 10-3 margin in the match, with goalie Jazmine Richards contributing the three stops to the fine LHS effort.
The Lady Lancers then made the short road trip to the state capital on Friday the 8th and wound up making the ride home contemplating a 3-1 defeat.
The host Crimson Tide crew grasped a slim, 1-0 lead at halftime after potting a shot four minutes into the match.
Londonderry knotted the score at 1-1 just six minutes into the second stanza when Gwen Barnes was set up by Stowell.
However, Concord netted goals in minutes 51 and 75 to collect the 3-1 success.
The Lady Lancers outshot their 3-1 hosts by a 10-8 margin but lost on the scoreboard despite six stops from keeper Richards.
This week, the Londonderry crew found itself looking at a Tuesday, Sept. 12 match at home against the Exeter High Lady Blue Hawks – after Londonderry Times press time – followed by another home match against Alvirne of Hudson this Friday Sept. 15.