After seeing his 2013 Londonderry High girls’ soccer squad start out its campaign with a pair of losses, coach Derek Dane wanted no part of a repeat this fall.
And the Lady Lancers’ mentor had few reasons to be sporting anything but a grin after seeing his 2014 contingent get its season started with impressive wins over Spaulding and Winnacunnet last week.
In their season-opening match against the Spaulding High Lady Red Raiders of Rochester at LHS on Wednesday, Sept. 3 it took the Lady Lancers a bit of time to get their offense untracked. But once it was, it remained that way in a 7-1 pounding of the visiting side.
Each side tallied one goal during the first half, with Spaulding snaring a 1-0 lead 17 minutes into the match and Londonderry answering in the 35th minute when June Cranmer was set up by Emily Crocetti.
The hosts then hammered home six unanswered tallies during the second 40 minutes of play, with Crocetti potting what would prove to be the winning tally 11 minutes into the second period on a set-up by Gretchen McGrath.
The hot-footed hosts then received insurance markers from Sarah Desmarais (54th minute), Kassie Moore (from McKenzie Donovan, 59th minute), Desmarais again (from Cranmer, 61st minute), Katrina Rivard (63rd minute), and Alli Nelson (from Erin Barnes, 80th minute).
Dane’s victorious crew pelted some 32 shots at the Spaulding cage, while LHS goalie Jackie Luckhardt only had to make six stops on the winless Lady Raiders (0-2).
The locals then had to take their first road trip for an official contest last Friday, Sept. 5 for a match at Hampton against the host Winnacunnet High Lady Warriors. And the trip home was a positive and relaxed one after the locals moved to 2-0 on the young season with a 2-0 whitewashing of that host.
Crocetti had a hand – errr, make that a foot – in each of the Londonderry scores, both of which came in the second half after the opposing sides had played to a scoreless deadlock in the first half.
The LHS all-stater potted what would prove to be the game-winning tally, unassisted, 12 minutes into the new period. And she set up Kassie Moore for the second marker 12 minutes after that to make it a 2-0 contest.
The Lady Lancers enjoyed a 14-6 advantage in shots on net, with net-minder Luckhardt turning aside all six Winnacunnet scoring attempts in the pleasing blanking. The host Lady Warriors’ record slipped to 1-1-1 with the defeat.