Derryfield, Hollis Brookline making their mark in D2 boys lacrosse

This wasn't the first championship rodeo for the Derryfield School and Hollis Brookline High School boys lacrosse teams.

It was just two years ago that the Cavaliers upset an undefeated Cougars team in double overtime to win a championship.

But that was when both programs were in Division III, and when the NHIAA restructured boys and girls lacrosse before the 2015 season, the two teams were among the nine programs that made the jump to Division II.

Nothing changed for Derryfield, as the Cougars reached the title game again, and came up short against Goffstown last year. Meanwhile, HB went 6-10 in the regular season and pulled off a first-round upset before the Cavs also fell to the Grizzlies.

This year, the pair finished as the top two teams in the division, going a combined 29-4 during the regular season.

"I think it says D3 was a pretty good division while we were down there," Derryfield coach Chris Hettler said. "People didn't give that division the respect it deserved. You watched all the D3 teams that came up and this year they played hard and made waves this year. We didn't make it easy on them."

Of the 12 playoff teams last year, six of them were teams that had moved up from D3, and this year, they did one better, as seven made the postseason.

"It's just a tremendous accomplishment to step up to Division II and play against some of those bigger schools and get to this point in only two years," HB coach Mike Soucy said. "The top end of D3 has always been good. I think we've always believed that we could compete and now we've shown it."

For both coaches, moving up had already been decided on whether there was realignment or not, but neither would have been able to do so unless the coaches had felt confident in what was coming down the pipe.

"We were going to move up any way and Derryfield was going to do the same thing," Soucy said. "We've got a good feeder system and a good group of kids, so we're going to be looking forward to next year as much as we've enjoyed this run. We're proud of kids and what we accomplished."

It's a little different for the Cougars, who are the smallest school playing boys lacrosse, but draw players from all over Southern New Hampshire.

"Hollis has a great youth program, the coaches are experienced and they bring kids up," Hettler said. "For us, it's a building process. It's a matter of getting kids excited about the game and getting them in it and building a culture. We'll just keep building. There are guys waiting in the wings to take that role next year.

"We're going to keep doing that as long as the interest is there. I came to Derryfield 14 years ago and I never thought we could get it to this point. I'm going to take it and see how far we can go with it."