Oyster River-Newmarket boys lacrosse able to get win over Manchester Memorial-Central (video)

MANCHESTER - The list of things that has ailed the Oyster River-Newmarket boys lacrosse team this year is so long, coach Ruppy Hailey struggled remembering it all off the top of his head.

Despite that, the Bobcats are still finding ways to compete, and more importantly, pull out wins.

ORN did that Tuesday night, coming back from a slow start and an early deficit to pick up a 9-3 win over Manchester Memorial-Central in a Division II contest at Memorial High School.

Gabe Goodwin had three goals and Sam Guilmette had two goals and two assists to lead the Bobcats (4-2) through a sloppy night that saw the teams combine for 50 turnovers, including 19 in the third quarter.

"I told them the sign of a good team is being able to play through adversity," Hailey said. "You never want to make excuses for your play, whether it be bad or good, but some of the stuff we’ve had, we’ve run the gamut."

The list includes a concussion, knee injuries, a shoulder injury, and of course, COVID.

"Broken finger was the other one," Hailey said a few minutes after going through the list. "You name it and it’s happened. Pretty proud of the way we played, but we still have those lapses where we make some turnovers, and we were lucky (Tuesday) that they didn’t capitalize on enough of them. In the past, we’d make a mistake and they’d make us pay."

Jake Failia added two goals and an assist for ORN while Evan Plourde and Jacob Lyzak also had a goal apiece. Finn Mason made 11 saves for the Bobcats and didn't allow a goal in the second half.

Braden Hafeman led MMC (1-4) with two goals and Colin Beaulieu also scored for the Kings, who were playing shorthanded.

"For the most part, our guys played pretty hard," MMC coach Jordan D'Onofrio said. "We had guys playing more time than their used to when a bunch of guys decided vacation was more important. We had a lot of young guys stepping up and they played hard. I thought we had a lot of young, novice mistakes out on the field and it hurt us."

Joey Velez and Talen Parron each had an assist and Mene Adumene made 10 saves.

With rain falling steadily for most of the first quarter, neither team could get much going and both goalies were able to make some key stops.

Goodwin finally got ORN on the board with 4:50 remaining in the quarter, but MMC was able to capitalize on the manup in the final minute, as Hafeman tied it with 5.1 seconds left in the first.

The Bobcats won the faceoff to start the second quarter and kept possession for a couple of minutes, but a groundball was scooped up by Owen Kelley, and the junior started a breakout that ended with Hafeman's second goal and a 2-1 lead with 9:58 left in the half.

But ORN didn't take long to swing momentum, as Failia scored to tie the game just 51 seconds later and then gave the Bobcats the lead 30 seconds after that.

"That team is well-coached," D'Onofrio said. "I don’t think we were that far away. We’re right there and a lot bad mental mistakes that put us in unfortunate situations, and when you’ve got a young team, it’s hard to bounce back from that."

Failia assisted on Lyzak's goal with 7:52 remaining in the half and the Kings took a timeout to regroup. Coming out of the break, MMC had a couple of changes to cut into the lead, but Mason made stops when needed.

"We know when he is in there, it’s extremely rare for him to give up more than one or two softies in a game," Hailey said of Mason. "He’s usually rock-solid for us. It’s not that we’re always looking for the highlight reel ones, but he’ll make those, too. We know if we do our job defensively and we keep the shots coming from a distance, if he sees them, he’ll stop the majority of them. He’s a big part of our success."

ORN looked to stretch the lead late in the quarter with a manup opportunity, but MMC was able to kill it off, and after a Bobcats' turnover, Beaulieu scored with 1:44 left in the half to make it 4-3.

Goodwin restored the two-goal lead, scoring with 18.9 seconds left in the half, and his buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter gave ORN a 7-3 lead.

"When we were dodging from X, we wanted guys to cut down the pipes, because we were kind of just standing still and waiting for things to happen up top," Hailey said. "Once we did that, we made the adjustments, they worked, it started to give us some distance. We needed that. Some of these kids were gassed in the third quarter."