Defense comes up big for Derryfield boys lacrosse in opening win over Londonderry (video)

MANCHESTER - As a sophomore in his first year playing varsity lacrosse, Liam England felt like he'd been more suceptible to low shots.

While he worked on all aspects of his game during the offseason, the Derryfield School junior put some extra emphasis on being better on that weak point.

In the second half of Wednesday night's season opener against Londonderry, that work was put to the test, especially in the second half, and England was up to the task. With the Lancers looking to go low a lot, the Cougars keeper got down on a lot of shots, helping Derryfield open the year with a 13-8 win over Londonderry.

“I know last year, I sometimes struggled with low shots, but I think I’ve really put in a lot of work in the offseason,” England said. “I’ve been really practicing and trying to work on my all-around game and it’s paid off.”

England's play was one of several things Derryfield coach Chris Hettler felt good about on the defensive side coming out of the win.

“We gave up one six-on-six goal,” Hettler said. “I’m very optimistic about the way the defense was playing. Liam got comfortable as the game went on, made some huge saves. We didn’t let Londonderry go on a run.”

The Cougars (1-0, No. 6 in the New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center/NHHSSports Coaches Poll) not only kept the Lancers from going on a run, they held them off the board for a 16-minute stretch that spanned the end of the second quarter and all but the final 30 seconds of the third.

Londonderry (0-2, No. 8) tied the game at 5 on a goal by Brady Campbell with 4:24 left in the second quarter, and after back-to-back goals by Dom Cercone and Vittorio Masoni, Derryfield took a 7-5 lead into halftime.

To that point, the Cougars had been able to keep the Lancers to shorter possessions, with most of their goals coming in transition. But in the third quarter, Londonderry was able to keep the ball for longer stretches, while Derryfield's defense held up, and the Cougars were able to get some transition goals of their own to stretch the lead.

After Masoni and Ryan Maxwell scored for Derryfield in the first part of the third to make it 9-5, Londonderry had possession for almost two-and-a-half minutes, but couldn't capitalize on it. The Lancers eventually turned the ball back over, leading to another transition score for the Cougars, this time from Emerson Stover.

“We went for a skip pass there for no reason,” Londonderry coach Jimmy Ward said. “I think that’s a little inexperience with having those possessions. Guys that don’t have the ball in the  stick all the time are like we need to go right now.

“We were moving the ball. We had our chances, we didn’t finish all of them, but we were right there.”

Campbell broke the dry spell by scoring with 24.1 left in the third to make it 10-6 going to the fourth, but Londonderry went another eight minutes without scoring after that.

“I’m feeling really good about our defense,” England said. “We went out there and really executed and played to have fun. We really loosened up and just played.”