Pelham takes care of business against Laconia to advance to D3 boys lacrosse final

EXETER - The Pelham High School boys lacrosse team started strong, ended strong, and never let up in the middle.

The unbeaten Pythons showed why they are the No. 1 seed by cruising past No. 4 Laconia 16-4 on Thursday in the Division III semifinals at Bill Ball Stadium. Pelham will face No. 2 Hopkinton in the final Saturday at 2:30 p.m., also at Bill Ball Stadium.

Pelham scored two goals in the opening 24 seconds and never looked back. The Pythons outclassed Laconia at both ends of the field and never let last year’s state finalists into the game.

The Pythons (16-0, No. 10 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) rolled on the back of their strong faceoff game, as junior middie Charlie Katin won 15 of 21 faceoffs to give Pelham possession after possession against the Sachems (11-5).

“We pushed transition very well,” Pelham coach Will Delanoy said. “We have a great faceoff guy in Charlie. He’s facing off at 78 percent, which is unheard of. That helps our transition game, and all the guys understand how things roll.”

Pelham used that added time with the ball to pepper Laconia goalie Musaab Abu Zaid from start to finish, as the Pythons outshot Laconia 47-25 and got production throughout the offense.

Senior attack Ian Morgenstern had four goals and sophomore middie Mason Fecteau had a hat trick. Pelham got two goals each from Devyn Tucci, Evan Haskins and Riley Nutter.

“We have a lot of guys close together in total points,” Delanoy said. “That’s great to have when you can attack from anywhere on the field.”

Pelham held a solid 23-15 ground balls advantage that further allowed it to put the pedal down.

Even with the offense clicking on all cylinders, Pelham sophomore keeper Jaxon Snyder still found a way to leave his mark on the game. Snyder stopped eight shots before being pulled from the game with just under four minutes left.

“He’s like our little field general, and he’s a great goaltender,” Delanoy said. “He communicates with the defense and gets down on the ball. It was huge to have him, and he gets intense, too, which kind of makes the whole defense unit an intense squad.”

The only issue for the Pythons was with how it possessed. Pelham turned the ball over a dozen times, which is something it cannot do if it wants to bring home the program’s first state championship on Saturday against Hopkinton.

The Pythons beat the Hawks 9-5 in the regular season to snap Hopkinton's 42-game winning streak

“I think it’s just keeping the guys settled and reminding them the way we got here is playing within our means,” Delanoy said. “We can’t go outside of that just because it’s the championship. It’s the last game of the season, but it’s just another game. We’ve shown we can be successful doing what we do.”