Lot to like for Exeter boys lacrosse in opening win over Londonderry (video)

LONDONDERRY - It's one game, but there was a lot for Matt Brewster to like about Tuesday's performance by the Exeter High School boys lacrosse team.

The Blue Hawks took the lead early, held on to it despite a long stretch without a goal, and pulled away late behind a big offensive day from Gavin Lechner.

The senior scored eight goals and dished out two assists as Exeter opened the season with a 17-11 win over Londonderry in the Division I opener for both teams.

Owen Williams added four goals and an assist and Nick Sullivan also had four goals, as the Blue Hawks (1-0, No. 2 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first quarter and never let the Lancers (0-1, No. 7) get closer than two goals the rest of the way.

"Definitely some positives, like the fact that we put up 17 (goals) on a good team," Brewster said. "That’s good. There’s a lot of areas, and the film will show it, that we can fix. A lot of those are controlables, so we’ll go to work (Wednesday)."

But on a day where the offense was clicking and the defense was keeping Londonderry at a distance, it might have been what happened on faceoffs that was the biggest news.

Sophomore Will McIlroy finished the day winning better than 75 percent, going against a rotation of Lancers that included Ty Parsons, who was an all-state performer a year ago.

For a team that went into games last season knowing it was likely to lose the battle on faceoffs, McIlroy's performance was big.

"I can’t ask much more," Brewster said. "Last year, I don’t think we won any faceoffs and now we’ve got a kid in there who is grinding. He put some reps in every day in practice and getting better. We gave him player of the game because of the groundballs and faceoffs."

Gabe Albert also had a goal and two assists for Exeter while Marshall Lasewicz and Jack Herring each had a helper. Ethan Bernich made eight saves.

Londonderry got four goals from Aiden Huard while Sam Melia had three goals and two assists and Nate Pedrick had two goals and an assist. Branden Robinson (assist) and Kyle McPhail added a goal apiece and Colby Walden finished with 16 saves.

"The guys are super passionate about everything they do," Londonderry coach Dave Wiedenfeld said. "I knew there was going to be a learning curve. I feel like we were prepared, there’s just little things we’ve got to clean up, adjacent passes, making sure we get longer possessions to give our defense time to rest."

Lechner had four of his goals in the first quarter, including one in the final 15 seconds, to help put Exeter up three goals going into the second. The Lancers made an adjustment during the break, giving Dylan Wrisley more help defending against the Blue Hawks attackman.

It worked for most of the quarter, as Exeter went scoreless for more than 10 minutes, but Londonderry was only able to cut the lead to 5-3.

Williams broke the drought with two goals in the final 68 seconds of the half to give Exeter a 7-3 lead at the break, but the Lancers came right back to open the second half, scoring twice in 14 seconds to get back within two.

Lechner and Huard traded goals to make it an 8-6 game with 4:54 to play in the third, but the Blue Hawks scored three goals in 61 seconds - one each from Lechner, Williams and Sullivan - to make it a five-goal game.

It was still a five-goal lead, 13-8, midway through the fourth when Exeter pulled away, thanks in part to its man-up. Lechner made it 14-8 with 7:01 to play and Melia was called for a slash.

After McIlroy won the faceoff, Lechner scored again 28 seconds later to make it 15-8. Londonderry took another penalty with 5:28 left and Williams scored 21 seconds after that to give the Blue Hawks their biggest lead of the day.

"I think that when we go on runs like that, we have to continue to have that momentum going," Brewster said. "Good teams are going to score goals. Our next question is how do we respond to good teams scoring goals. Lacrosse isn’t a perfect game, people get scored on. It’s figuring out how do we make some tweaks defensively.

"I think we have the guys, we’ve got the pieces. It’s just the first game."