Campbell boys lacrosse rolls to win over Laconia (video)

LACONIA - The Campbell High School boys lacrosse team has had no problem scoring goals this season.

What coach Josh Knight has tried to get the Cougars to realize is that it's OK if an opponent scores against them, too. Against Laconia on Monday, Campbell did its best to just not give up too many of them.

The Cougars took an early lead and kept pushing whenever the Sachems tried to answer, cruising to a 12-4 win over Laconia in a Division III game at Bank of NH Stadium.

Jack Noury had four goals and two assists to lead Campbell (9-0, ARV in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) while Andrew Willnus added three goals and an assist and Brendan Boschi had two goals and two assists.

"I think that was definitely one of our more complete games," Knight said. "I said we’re about 80 percent there. We need to work on some clearing and riding, but the energy was there, the offense was clicking. Defensively, probably the best I’ve seen us play as a team and probably the best game (goalie) Ryan (Guerrette) has played all year."

Guerrette didn't have to make a ton of saves, but the ones he made were timely, and the Cougars were able to get out in transition off them. The four goals allowed was one more than Laconia's previous low for the season and well below its average of 11.9 per game coming into the contest.

"They had answers for pretty much everything we had (Monday)," Laconia coach Stephen McDonough said. "Their ride is really tough. If there’s one thing I can pinpoint that I hope to improve on out of this game, it’s our clearing. We’ve been clearing the ball really well all year, (but) we haven’t faced any pressure. Nothing close to what they did in the ride. They’re a tough team."

John Newell, Tiernan Sullivan and Colby Carey also had a goal apiece for Campbell and Nick Carignan had an assist. Lucas Craig was solid on faceoffs, forcing Laconia (7-2) to rotate Tim Ausevich and Cole Roy on the draws.

Carson Tucker had three goals for the Sachems while Ausevich had a goal and an assist and Roy and J.P. Harriman each had an assist. Cam Harriman made 14 saves in goal, at times keeping Laconia in the game.

"Cam saw a lot of rubber," McDonough said. "That’s what he had done for us his whole high school career, he stops the ball. He’s a leader on the field for us. He’s always a positive force. When one goes in, he moves on to the next play pretty well. The effort was there, but Campbell had our number."

The Cougars did early, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the game's first 7:08. But after Sullivan made it a three-goal lead, Tucker answered for Laconia just 48 seconds later.

Campbell just went right back to it, with Craig winning the faceoff and Willnus scoring less than a minute later to make it 4-1.

The lead grew to 7-1 early in the second quarter, but for a long stretch of the frame, the teams went back and forth in transition, with neither team generating a lot of offense.

Laconia finally broke through on Tucker's second goal, a shot that trickled through Guerrette and just crossed over the line.

"That second goal, the word we’re trying to use this year is adversity," Knight said. "When we get punched in the mouth, how are we going to respond. They can get down on themselves because they’re almost expecting perfection.

"People score, that’s part of the game. It’s a high-scoring game. People are going to score goals, it’s how are you going to respond that’s going to make you guys. When they did score, and it was a goal where it trickled in. They called it a goal, how are we going to bounce back?"

The Cougars kept the Sachems off the board for the rest of the half, then netted the first goal of the third quarter to make it 8-2. Laconia got it back with 5:48 to play in the third, but Campbell answered with three straight goals in less than five minutes to put the game away early in the fourth.