Pinkerton boys lacrosse uses big second quarter to cruise past Londonderry (video)

LONDONDERRY - The rain and mud made things tough for the Pinkerton Academy and Londonderry High School boys lacrosse teams Friday.

But for a six-and-a-half minute stretch in the second quarter, the Astros were operating like they were on a sun-drenched turf field.

Pinkerton did everything it wanted to over that time - winning faceoffs, working the ball around on every possession, and finding the back of the net - as the Astros outscored the Lancers 9-1 in the quarter on the way to a 15-7 win in a Division I game.

Owen McCormack had three of his game-high five goals during that early second-quarter run, in which Pinkerton turned a one-goal lead into an 8-1 advantage. Hunter Drouin also scored twice in the second quarter, as the sophomore finished with three goals and two assists, while Ryan Auger had two goals and five assists and Mason Drouin recorded three goals and four assists.

Gennaro Marra added a goal and an assist, and while the senior didn't have his best day on faceoffs, he was 9 of 12 in the second quarter, including six in a row to help the Astros (6-3, No. 2 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) build their lead.

"It took the wind out of their sails," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "It’s tough when you’re getting scored on and the team that’s scoring on you keeps winning faceoffs. It’s depressing. A combination of offense opening up and Gennaro controlling the faceoffs, it’s just psychological and it tilts the field in our advantage."

And it came after Londonderry (6-4, No. 5) held Pinkerton to a single goal for most of the first quarter and then appeared to pick up momentum at the start of the first. Hunter Drouin made it 2-0 Astros in the final minute of the first but the Lancers got the faceoff to open the second quarter and Anthony Federico scored 32 seconds in to make it 2-1.

But that good feeling for Londonderry didn't last long. Marra won the next faceoff and Auger scored 28 seconds later.

Conner McCormack also had a goal and an assist for Pinkerton while Jackson Morrisette had an assist and Jack Sweeney made nine saves.

Londonderry got four goals from Cole Keegan while Federico scored twice and Zach Fawcett also had a goal.

The Lancers withstood an onslaught of Pinkerton shots in the first quarter, as the Astros fired 13 at the Londonderry cage and goalie Ross Carroll came up with three saves.

"We knew we were getting looks the way we wanted them, we just weren’t finishing," Mason Drouin said. "The goalie was making some good saves. Then in the huddle at the quarter, we said we had to get better shots and make the extra pass to score."

Auger scored 3:50 into the second half to make it a 10-goal lead for Pinkerton before Londonderry started to get back into it. The Lancers were able to cut the lead to 12-5 on a goal by Keegan with 8.2 seconds left in the third, and the junior scored 59 seconds into the fourth to make it a six-goal game.

But despite winning the ensuing faceoff, and getting off a couple of shots, Londonderry couldn't get any closer. Once the Astros got possession back, they started to pull away.

"We talked at halftime that it’s Pinkerton-Londonderry and don’t think that this game is over," O'Reilly said. "They’re not going to give up, they have too much pride, and we got a little messy on offense. We forced the ball inside and all of a sudden ground balls didn’t come up the way we wanted them to."

Londonderry will look to bounce back on Monday, when it hosts Exeter at 4 p.m., while Pinkerton heads to Souhegan on Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. start.