Adjustments help Nashua South boys lacrosse roll past Concord (video)

NASHUA - There were a few things the Nashua High School South boys lacrosse team needed to fix on offense going into Saturday's game against Concord.

Whether it was strategic or fundamental, one of the keys for the Panthers was to get Griffin Johnson going.

With the changes working and South's compete level high, Johnson did his part, scoring five goals to help the Panthers regroup offensively with a 13-5 win over the Crimson Tide at Stellos Stadium.

Johnson added an assist while Connor Rowsell had two goals and five assists and Nate Campbell had three goals and an assist, as South (4-1, No. 6 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) matched its goal total from the previous two games against Concord.

"We made some adjustments offensively," South coach Bill Monsen said. "We just kind of tweaked a few things. I think the kids bought in and you saw it. There was a lot of good ball movement and we were finishing. I think on defense, we did a much better job being physical. We’ve still got to clean up groundballs."

Ryan Salemi also had two goals and assist and Cody Goode added a helper while Ethan Johnson made 14 saves.

After opening the year scoring 32 goals in a pair of wins, South had just 13 combined in a loss to Londonderry and a win over Manchester Memorial-Central. Griffin Johnson leads the Panthers in scoring, with his 16 goals accounting for more than a quarter of the team's total, but he had just three in those two games.

"He’s paramount to our offensive success," Monsen said. "He’s a leader on the field and he sees the field well. When he is on, we are clicking on all cylinders, and when he is off, we are in trouble.

"Offensively, what was going on ... we weren’t changing planes, and when we did change planes, whether with an assisted goal or any type of movement on the goalie, we were successful. The kids saw that on film and bought into doing that (Saturday). We made their goalie have to work for four quarters."

Concord goalie Colby Bettens finished with 10 saves and kept the Crimson Tide (2-3, No. 9) in it in the first half, but in the third quarter, South dominated possession time and peppered the goalie with shots.

"South has guys who are battle tested and they know what to do in those situations," Concord coach Jeff Smith said. "We’ve got a lot of guys who are new in their roles. It’s good for us to play a tough team to see where we stand. Teams start to pull away as the game goes on if they’re deeper."

Joey Tarbell had two goals for the Crimson Tide while Max Leahy, Jonathan McDonald and Parker Savoy each had a goal.

The Panthers got off to a good start, leading 4-0 after one quarter, but Concord was able to keep it close, getting within two on back-to-back goals just 42 seconds apart with 5:15 left in the second.

Rowsell got one of the goals back before halftime to give South a 6-3 lead and the Panthers opened the third quarter with a goal that just rolled over the line to make 7-3. Griffin Johnson added two more goals to stretch the lead to 9-3 with 1:15 to go until the fourth.

"At the end of the second, our passing and catching wasn’t all there," he said. "We knew that if we could pass and catch, we could pick apart their defense, which we did in the third and fourth. We started connecting and everything started opening up."

South ended the quarter with the kind of transition goal Monsen felt was missing from its two previous games last week. Goode came up with a groundball and got it to Rhett Medling in the middle of the field.

Medling ran it over and then got it to Johnson, who passed to Rowsell just above goal line extended, drawing both Bettens and defender Marshall Reedenauer to him. That left Salemi alone on the other side of the crease, and he held himself out long enough to catch Rowsell's pass and put it into the empty net with 2.1 seconds remaining in the quarter.

"That’s the kind of play we were doing all preseason and in the first two games, but then we didn’t have earlier this week," Monsen said. "I told them before the game, one of the problems that we’re having is that we focus on the future and the past.

"We’re too still angry about our performance against Londonderry and then thinking about North and Souhegan (next week). You’ve got to just focus on the now. It was just us calming down and getting back to what we were doing."