Nashua South boys lacrosse rolls past Merrimack (video)

NASHUA - After a stretch of just two games in almost four weeks, the Nashua High School South boys lacrosse team is on a sprint to the end of the regular season.

That's meant games every other day since the Panthers returned to action, plus a stretch of three games in four days in the final week.

It's enough to take a toll on anyone, and South coach Bill Monsen could start to see it during his team's 15-6 win over Merrimack on Wednesday at Stellos Stadium.

The Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 in the first three minutes and led 10-2 midway through the third quarter before South started to slow down.

"You can see in our legs, we’re gassed," Monsen said. "Hopefully, we can get our legs back for Friday so we can execute better. Credit to Merrimack, they played well, they did a good job on defense and their offense put together some goals.

"It’s one of those things where us as coaches have to do a better job of communicating. They’re high school kids, they’ve got a game, they want to play. They didn’t want to come out."

South (4-5, No. 8 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) got five goals and three assists from Drew Fleury while Jaden Murphy also had five goals. Griffin Johnson had two goals and two assists and Luke Panyavong had two goals while Nate Campbell added a goal and an assist.

Ethan Johnson made nine saves for the Panthers and Aidan Walsh was 13 of 15 on faceoffs.

"Aidan was awesome on faceoffs," Monsen said. "Ethan was solid yet again. Ever since we came back, he’s been solid. He was playing awesome in the first half."

Kyle Crampton and Connor Lanigan each had two goals for Merrimack (4-9) while Jason Hostler had a goal and an assist. Kyle Duhn also scored and Matthew Todd had an assist while Alex Griffin had 10 saves.

But the slow start put the Tomahawks in a tough spot, and by the time they were able to get going, the deficit proved to be too much.

"A lot of coaches talk about teams coming out flat or too excited," Merrimack coach Brian Miller said. "We were just talking about how we’re either going 90 miles an hour and run people over, because we’re a physical team. And a lot of times, we’re under the speed limit.

"We haven’t found that pedal to the metal without living in the penalty box. When we play in sync, we have some good looking things going on and we’re coordinated. We just haven’t found that sweet spot, so it’s been frustrating for the guys for sure."

After the Panthers jumped out to the early 3-0 lead, the Tomahawks used a timeout just 2:47 into the game. Merrimack was able to get into its offense and put a couple of shots on goal, but Ethan Johnson came up with three saves in about a minute.

South led 4-1 after one quarter and goals by Griffin Johnson and Campbell made it 6-1 with 7:30 remaining in the first half. But then the teams threw the ball around for a while, combining for eight turnovers.

Hostler scored with 52.7 seconds left in the half to make it 6-2, but Fleury answered with 20.3 remaining to give South a 7-2 lead. The Panthers stretched the lead to eight by scoring the first three goals of the second half and led 11-4 going into the fourth quarter.

"I think we were just trying to be more deliberate with executing our offense," Monsen said. "In the first half, we ran our offense in the beginning, scored some quick ones, and then reverted back to doing one-on-ones, because they were pressing out quite a bit.

"We have to work on executing our offense so we get better at it. We came together at halftime and talked about it. The kids saw it just as much as I did, so that made a big difference."

Griffin came up with a handful of saves for Merrimack that kept the game from getting out of hand for the Tomahawks earlier.

"Alex has done an outstanding job for us," Miller said. "He’s learning and he’s learning in a division that there is no letdown. The shooters just keep coming. He’s getting better and better. He got caught on a few slippery ones but he’s getting better. He’s a tremendously hard worker and he’s a great kid. I can’t say enough good things about him."

The two teams will meet again at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Merrimack.