Late flurry of goals lifts Derryfield boys lacrosse past Winnacunnet

MANCHESTER - As the wins have piled up for the Derryfield School boys lacrosse team, the competitive games haven’t, as the Cougars have dominated many of their opponents during a win streak closing in on 50 games.

Friday night, it was Winnacunnet that gave the Cougars all they could handle before Derryfield clawed back to take down the Warriors 7-4.

Derryfield trailed 4-1 3:26 into the second quarter before methodically taking the game over.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Derryfield coach Chris Hettler said. “We’ve been in a couple of games like this, and they keep their composure. They did a good job of not panicking. The guys did a good job of battling back tonight.”

Winnacunnet’s zone gave the Cougars fits all game, and Derryfield (15-0) picked its spots carefully. Three times the Cougars scored in man-up situations and found moments of brilliance amidst chaos. The game was tied at four with two minutes left before the Cougars made their own luck and found the back of the next three games in the game’s waning minutes.

Derryfield senior Connor Glosner led the offense with three goals including the Cougars’ sixth, with 42 seconds left, to put the game on ice.

“I enjoy these games the most,” Glosner said. “I don’t like the games when it’s not competitive and we can get a goal whenever we want. I like these games where it pushes us offensively and defensively. Zone is our hardest defensive formation to break which we’ve been working on a lot. This helped us see what we need to work on the most.”

The Warriors (10-3) stymied Derryfield early by sticking to their zone and not overcommitting on defense. Winnacunnet goalie Ollie Wilcox was tremendous with 11 saves for the Warriors to backbone the defense.

Offensively, the Warriors jumped ahead in the first thanks to two quick goals by Gavin O’Hara. Two more early in the second, from Tyler Hoar and Nick Merrick, gave the Warriors a three-goal lead.

The Warriors would be held scoreless the rest of the way.

“They’re goalie was awesome,” Winnacunnet coach Pat Snow said. “We got the looks we were looking for. We were running our offense. We were comfortable in our offense. Unfortunately the kid made good stops on us.”

Derryfield goalie Avry Truex was a cut above for the Cougars. Truex made 13 saves including the final 11 shots that made it on cage.

“It’s a great feeling to have him shut down one, and sometimes a second save in a row. and then clear the ball,” Glosner said. “It helps us get something behind us to want to push ourselves more than we are.”

The Cougars won the faceoff battle 9-4 and controlled ground balls 28-17. The win was Derryfield’s second of the season by less than seven goals.

“We know the playoffs are going to be like this,” Hettler said. “The guys like playing in games like this. I fully expect Bow and Goffstown to give us great games next week too.”