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# A little time off does wonders for St. Thomas boys lacrosse
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/little-time-off-wonders-st-thomas-boys-lacrosse/
- Published: 2017-06-03T16:00:07.000Z
- Updated: 2017-06-03T16:00:07.000Z
- Description: When the regular season came to a close last week, Sean Houlahan knew exactly what his St. Thomas High School boys lacrosse team needed. Some time off. The Saints coach let his players enjoy the holiday weekend after they had played six games in nine days, and lost five of them. And when the team re
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, boys lacrosse, NH High School Sports Insider, St. Thomas, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

When the regular season came to a close last week, Sean Houlahan knew exactly what his St. Thomas High School boys lacrosse team needed.

Some time off.

The Saints coach let his players enjoy the holiday weekend after they had played six games in nine days, and lost five of them. And when the team returned to practice last Tuesday, Houlahan could see something was different.

"It was a little too much," the coach said of the stretch run. "We got tired and couldn't pull ourselves up. I gave the kids a long weekend, and it helped. We had a great practice (Tuesday), it was up tempo."

That carried over into Wednesday's Division II preliminary round, as No. 10 St. Thomas went on the road and handed No. 7 Timberlane a 14-5 defeat. The win sent the Saints into the quarterfinals, where for the third year in a row, they'll face No. 2 Derryfield at 5 p.m. Saturday.

This will the be the second meeting of the year for the two teams, and the sixth since the Cougars moved up from Division III. Derryfield has won the first five, including a 15-1 win on April 19.

But Houlahan believes the Saints have changed since that early game.

"We're a completely different team," he said. "You can see that. They don't want to play us. We get hot when it comes to the postseason. We're going to give them a game, hopefully. It wouldn't be fun if we didn't. We can't just roll over for them."

St. Thomas junior Jojo Grella, who had five goals and two assists against Timberlane, thinks he and his teammates are hitting their stride at just the right time.

"We find our groove in the playoffs," he said. "We're treating it as one-game seasons and you've got to play at a hundred percent. That was rough, having the (regular) season end that way. It took away from our confidence, but (Wednesday) was amazing.

"We've been working on the offense the whole year. We haven't really been able to grasp it, I guess, and (Wednesday) we were all connected. We were all working (together)."

Houlahan could see a change in two aspects of St. Thomas' game on Wednesday, one of which led to the other.

"Two big things we've struggled with all year is our intensity and groundballs," he said. "We had 40 groundballs (Wednesday). We controlled the ball, and when you control the ball, good things happen.

"That's what I've been telling the kids, you can't score if you aren't on offense. We won the groundballs and that was the difference in the game (against Timberlane)."

The winner of Derryfield and St. Thomas will face either No. 6 Windham or No. 3 Hollis Brookline, who also play Saturday, in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Stellos Stadium in Nashua.