A 5-0 walloping of the struggling Salem High Blue Devils followed by an overtime loss to the tough Bedford High Bulldogs last week left coach Todd Ellis and his Londonderry High boys’ soccer team contemplating their 6-3 season record as they entered this week.
The Lancers bagged their third consecutive victory and advanced to 6-2 in Division I by blanking the 3-6 Salem High contingent at LHS on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Griffin Cowles had a big match for the locals, tallying three points on two goals and one assist. Max Hastings and Cody Woods each collected two assists for the winning side as well.
Cowles potted the first goal of the match (from Hastings), Andrew Mitchell made it a 2-0 match (from Woods), and Cowles then returned Hastings’ earlier favor by setting him up for the third marker.
Londonderry then padded its lead in the second half on goals by Cowles (from Woods) and Jayden West (assisted by Tom Cranmer).
LHS goalie Jeff Baroody made four saves his contribution to the shutout, which was his team’s third blanking of an opponent this season. His offense smacked 14 shots on the Salem net.
“We played well today and created many opportunities for a variety of people to get into the play,” said Ellis.
But the Lancers had their winning streak end with the 3-2 overtime defeat at the hands of the visiting Bedford bunch (6-2-2) on Thursday, Oct. 2.
Marcus Wright scored for Londonderry in the first half, but Bedford tallied twice during those 40 minutes to carry a 2-1 advantage to halftime.
The hosts knotted the score at 2-2 during the second period when the hot-footed Griffin Cowles was set up by Andrew Mitchell, but the Bulldogs bagged the victory in the extra stanza.
“We started out flat in the first half and spotted them the lead,” lamented Ellis. “In the second half, I thought we played much better and created some good chances.”
Things didn’t quite go the Londonderry squad’s way in a 2-1, double-overtime loss to the Alvirne High Broncos’ Monday, Oct. 6, which snagged its sixth consecutive win in advancing to an excellent 8-2 on the campaign.
Tom Cranmer collected the lone Londonderry goal, unassisted, but Alvirne won out in the end by potting two shots.
“Another disappointing loss in overtime,” said coach Ellis. “I thought we created many great scoring opportunities throughout the game. We need to start making good on some of those opportunities.”