Pinkerton girls lacrosse pulls away in second half to beat Londonderry (video)

LONDONDERRY - Slow starts of been a little too common for the Pinkerton Academy girls lacrosse team this season, but Friday against Londonderry, was for a different reason.

Playing in a steady drizzle on wet grass and plenty of mud, the Astros' offense spent the early part of the game trying to find their footing on what was the sloppier end of the field.

While Pinkerton had a three-goal lead going into halftime, it was able to find more solid ground in the second half and outscored Londonderry 6-0 in the first 20 minutes to secure a 17-7 win in Division I action.

Madison Daziel led the way with five goals, four of which came in the second half, while Lauren Lisauskas and Kiley Davis each had three goals and an assist for the Astros (8-1), who won their fifth in a row.

Lilly Auger added a goal and an assist and Hailey Peredna had two goals for Pinkerton. Abby Jowett chipped in with a goal and an assist and Ali Lamphere also scored while Zoe Howe and Amy Quilgey registered an assist each. Dani Martineau had two saves and Lauren Sweeney made four stops.

"The conditions were pretty tough so I think it took our speed away a little bit," Pinkerton coach Rob Daziel said. "Once we got used it, we adjusted our offense a little bit to try to get out of the mud and try to pull them out into the better footing area. We executed it pretty well. The game was close for sure (in the first half)."

Londonderry (3-5) answered both of Pinkerton's early goals to make it a 2-2 game a little more than 10 minutes in and a goal by Sarah Duarte with 4:58 left in the first half helped the Lancers cut the lead to 5-4.

But the Astros went back up by two goals when Lisauskas found Auger in front of the net just 1:09 later, and then Lisauskas scored a goal of her own with 2:46 left in the half to make it 7-4. Each side added a goal before the half to make it 8-5 Pinkerton.

"We were just losing our footing so bad in the middle, I just spread it out," Rob Daziel said of the Astros' adjustments. "They came out to play us. You can see the field outside the eight-meter, the footing is much more solid. Inside, they were slipping and sliding. We just tried to start our offense from the better grass."

Pinkerton opened the second half with back-to-back goals just 1:02 apart to take a 10-5 lead and play started to get sloppy as the conditions deteriorated. Madison Daziel made it 11-5 with 16:16 to play and goals by Auger and Lamphere made it 13-5 with 8:19 to play.

Londonderry got two goals and three assists from Grace Chicko while Duarte also finished with two goals and Jenna Stowell had a goal and an assist. Maddy Walden and Grace Holland also had a goal apiece and Morgan Brutus made 11 saves.

Pinkerton has a quick turnaround, as it was scheduled to host Concord on Saturday in a game that was postponed last weekend. Londonderry heads to Exeter on Monday.