Pinkerton boys lacrosse moves on to D1 semifinals with win over Londonderry

DERRY - Every time the Londonderry High School boys lacrosse team threatened to make Saturday's Division I quarterfinal a game, Pinkerton Academy had the perfect answer.

In fact, it was so good, the Astros usually did it twice, and if you blinked, you probably missed it.

No. 2 Pinkerton scored back-to-back goals in eight seconds or less four times, three of which came in the first half, and the Astros cruised to a 21-8 win over No. 7 Londonderry to move on to the semifinals. Pinkerton will play No. 3 Exeter, which beat No. 6 Concord 16-6 also on Satruday, Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

Ryan Auger (three assists) and Owen McCormack (assist) each had five goals as Pinkerton (15-4, No. 2 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) put up nine goals in the second quarter to take a 14-5 lead into halftime. That included three sequences where, after the Astros scored a goal, senior Gennaro Marra won the faceoff, found an open man and Pinkerton scored in eight seconds or less.

"They made a little run before the end of the first half, which got them excited," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "Then Gennaro took over after that and the next I know, we were up 14-5. That was probably disheartening to them. Everything we wanted to do, we were able to do.

Marra, who had four assists, finished 23 of 27 on faceoffs, while Hunter Drouin had four goals and an assist and Mason Drouin added three goals and three assists. Connor McCormack also had three goals and an assist and Riley Spellman chipped in with a goal while Jack Sweeney made 11 saves.

Anthony Federico led Londonderry (11-8, No. 8) with three goals while Cole Keegan had two goals and an assist. Zach Fawcett also scored twice, both of his goals coming just 29 seconds apart in the second quarter to cut Pinkerton's lead to 10-5.

But the Astros closed out the half with four goals in the final 2:35, including back-to-back scores just seven seconds apart from Hunter Drouin and Auger, which made it 14-5 with 29.8 seconds left in the half.

"We practiced hard all week and we made some adjustments," Londonderry coach Roger Sampson said. "We used them against Hanover (in the regular-season finale) and we solidified them for Pinkerton, hoping that we’d have three solid lines.

"The three lines worked, but we couldn’t hold the ball in the zone, we couldn’t dominate possession time. The faceoffs killed us. This game comes down to possession and faceoffs, and Marra is a stud. He’s the best faceoff guys in the state. I appreciate his work. We tried. We shook it up. We had a long pole, we had two different short poles, but he held fast."

Pinkerton jumped out to a 2-0 lead less than four minutes into the game, but Londonderry was able to keep the Astros off the board while cutting the lead in half with 3:41 to go in the opening quarter. But Pinkerton answered with three goals in 1:17 to go up 5-1 with 1:32 left in the first frame.

Keegan got the Lancers a second goal with 24.8 seconds left in the first and Federico scored 50 seconds into the second to make it 5-3. But Marra won the ensuing faceoff and Spellman scored 58 seconds later to make it 6-3 with 10:12 left in the second.

Marra got the next faceoff, too, and found Mason Drouin for another Pinkerton goal just six seconds later. The Astros stretched that lead to 10-3, getting two more goals from Auger and Hunter Drouin eight seconds apart with 5:41 left in the half.

"We controlled the ball, we won faceoffs, we got open shots, we played pretty good defense," O'Reilly said. "Maybe too many penalties, but I’ll chalk that up to the rivalry."

Pinkerton will face Exeter in the semifinals for the second season in a row, which will also be their third meeting this season, with the Astros having won both.