Late run lifts Winnacunnet boys lacrosse past Hollis Brookline (video)

HAMPTON - The Winnacunnet High School boys lacrosse team has seen a few early leads slip away this season against some of the other top teams in Division II.

Now it was time for the Warriors to do that to someone else.

On four occasions Monday, Winnacunnet trailed Hollis Brookline by two goals, but on the first three times the Warriors came back to tie it, the Cavaliers went right back in front.

Not on the fourth, as Winnacunnet took the lead for good on a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter and ended the game on a 5-0 run to beat HB 11-8 in a D2 contest in Hampton.

Becket Rath and Brian McCown each had three goals and an assist to lead the Warriors (9-3, No. 7 in the MerchSquared.com/NHHSSports Coaches Poll) while Alec Mitchell had two goals and two assists and won 20 of 22 faceoffs.

"We faced some adversity early," Winnacunnet coach Pat Snow said. "We were sloppy to start the game and we were chasing goals, but we weathered the storm and got it back to a tie game. I told them at halftime, it’s going to take all 48 minutes. I’m proud of the effort.

"We’ve seen adversity this year, and for a young team, that can be hard to overcome. We dealt with the adversity well (Monday)."

Burke Spalding added two goals and an assist and Liam McNally had a goal and an assist while Hale Dodier and Braden Nowak recorded an assist apiece. Joel Williams finished with eight saves, including four during the Warriors' run over the game's final 17 minutes.

"This was a big win," Rath said. "It’s a hard thing coming back because it’s a game of runs. We just kind of rode that run and kept riding it and just kept putting it down. Eventually, we came out with a win."

HB (10-4) got three goals and an assist from Noah Taylor while Sam Petrella also had three goals. Mike O'Hearn and JP Torgersen had a goal and an assist apiece while Liam Mitchell recorded 11 saves for the Cavs.

"They played hard, definitely a lot of effort," HB coach Mac Martin said. "We didn’t execute the best, we made a lot of mistakes early that we were fortunate Winnacunnet didn’t capitalize on, which kind of kept us in the game. Then we capitalized on their mistakes."

That helped HB take leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 5-3 in the first half, but struggles on the clear late in the second quarter allowed Winnacunnet to tie the game up before the break.

The Warriors took their first lead just 52 seconds into the third quarter, on a goal by Rath, but the Cavs tied it back up less than two minutes later. HB got a fluky goal when Petrella was hit by two Winnacunnet defenders as he shot and the ball popped off the grass awkwardly and alluded Williams to cross the goal line.

Torgersen scored with 5:09 to play in the third quarter to make it 8-6, but didn't wait long to respond. Rath and Mitchell scored back-to-back goals just 1:11 apart to tie the game, and with time running out in the quarter, Spalding scooped up groundball and sent it low on the cage.

The shot found the back of the net with seven-tenths of a second left on the clock and the Warriors took a 9-7 lead into the fourth.

McCown and Mitchell both scored in the first three minutes of the fourth to close out the scoring and the Warriors kept the Cavs off the board the rest of the way.

"Once you have a lead, you can push a little bit in your own end," Snow said. "The way we operate, we’re going to turn it over a few times, because we try to go for those pretty goals. When it mattered most, we got some good rides throughout the game, especially those last three or four minutes. We were able to clog it up in the middle of the field."