Londonderry girls lacrosse takes heat, cruises to win over Concord (video)

LONDONDERRY - There is a group chat that members of the Londonderry High School girls lacrosse team share, and every game day, someone reminds the team to properly hydrate throughout the day.

The Lancers took heed of those messages on Friday.

On the hottest day of the spring so far, Londonderry used its conditioning and its hydration to roll past Concord for a 16-3 win that helped strengthen the Lancers' hold on the eighth, and final, playoff spot in Division I.

Tara Wright had four goals and two assists and Lauren Allen had three goals and three assists to lead Londonderry (7-6) to its fifth win in the last six games. The game started with a lot of back-and-forth play, with the Lancers taking a 3-2 lead in the first eight minutes, but Londonderry went on a 6-0 run over the final 10 minutes of the first half to take a 9-2 lead into the break.

"We take every team like it’s going to be a hard game, so that’s the energy we came out with," Wright said. "It was hard at the beginning and then we just clicked. We have a very fast and high-endurance team. That really helped us (Friday).

"Every day we have a game, somebody texts in our group chat ‘make sure you’re drinking your water.’ We check in with each other during the day. We take care of each other so we can perform better on the field, especially in this heat."

Caroline Leone, Meg Daileneas and Victoria Savage added two goals apiece for the Lancers while Lilah Melia recorded a goal, as did Ashleigh Leone, Abigail Whitley, and Jill Leonardo, who are all defensive players who were able to step up in transition and score for the Lancers.

"That’s one of the strengths we have on this team, the communication and knowing each other, being able to let the defense come over and not have to get silly offside calls," Londonderry coach Kelly Gordon said. "We always tell them, here’s somethings we can do, (but) let’s freelance. They take it and run with and get to use their creativity. I love that this team isn’t just one person scoring over and over again. Everyone contributes and it’s fun when everybody can score goals."

Concord (4-9), which came into the game behind Londonderry in ninth, got two goals from Mary Martinson and one from Tess Mulkerron. Emma Beaujouan and Danielle Lemay also played well for the Crimson Tide and goalie Nadia Hanna had seven saves.

The Tide were able to get the opening draw control and kept possession for the first few minutes of the game, but Londonderry goalie Quinn Brown came up with a pair of saves and the Lancers were able to clear the ball after the second one.

Moments later, Caroline Leone scored to give Londonderry a 1-0 lead, but that lasted for just 1:11, as Martinson came down and scored for Concord to tie it. The teams combined for three more goals in less than two minutes, with Daileneas giving the Lancers a 3-2 lead with 17:16 left in the first half.

Then the heat seemed like it started to affect both teams, leading to a combined eight turnovers, many in the midfield on clearing attempts, and a yellow card for the Lancers.

But with under 10 minutes to go in the half, Londonderry regrouped and started to take control of the game.

"They came out strong," Gordon said. "They have really been working together. We work a lot on conditioning. I think once we got our legs of understanding the heat and how it was going to work, we were able to pull it out.

"We had three subs we were able to move through. It was at defense, it was at midfield and it was on offense. We could really get everybody the two minutes they needed. The mids I was really focused on every three or four minutes, getting a new one in."

Daileneas scored with 9:43 remaining in the half to make it 4-2 and Whitley and Ashleigh Leone got their goals about a minute apart, with Leone making 6-2 with 7:05 until the break. Wright, Savage and Allen all added goals before halftime to make it 9-2 and Wright added another just 38 seconds into the second half for a 10-2 lead.

"I think we really just fire each other up very well," Wright said. "We kept our energy high and we really wanted it and it showed on the field. We helped each other out on and off the field and I think that’s why we ended up with that score."