Souhegan boys lacrosse looking for ways to quickly right the ship

There was little more than 14 minutes gone in Saturday's game when Alex Burnley came to the sideline.

Souhegan High School boys lacrosse coach Keith Bertrand called a timeout after Londonderry had taken a 4-0 lead with two quick goals to open the second quarter.

When the teams returned to the field, Burnley - the senior goalkeeper who was a first-team player last year and will play at Dartmouth College next season - was on the sideline, taking his goalie equipment off.

And when the Sabers went on the man-up a few moments later, Burnley returned to the field at attack, a short stick in his hand, and that's where he stayed until late in the fourth quarter of what turned into a 14-5 loss for Souhegan.

"Our midfielders are doing the majority of our scoring and our attack wasn't getting going," Bertrand said. "We tried to give them a spark."

The move caught Londonderry coach Sean LeBlanc by surprise, but he wasn't shocked to see Souhegan trying something outside the box to get things going.

"I think they have the best goalie in the state in Alex Burnley and he was keeping the tight for a while," LeBlanc said. "They moved him to attack, and I understand what they were doing, trying to get some scoring, but it opened up our offense and we were able to score more goals."

The immediate result was not what Bertrand had been hoping to get. Souhegan turned the ball over on that man-up, with Burnley throwing the ball away, and Londonderry responded by scoring on three of its first four shots against John Lohnes, who came in to play in goal. Lohnes settled in after that and finished with seven saves, but the offense couldn't find much consistency.

"Alex Burnley is, in my opinion, the best goalie in the state, but he's a lacrosse player," the coach said. "He's out shooting with a short (stick) before practices and he just loves the game. We've had him on man-up a few times, so we figured why not try it and see what happens. (Lohnes) is a very capable, talented goalie. We figured now was the time to try it and see what happens."

With losses in back-to-back games, giving up 14 goals in each, and with games against Bedford (9-6) and Exeter (9-6) to finish the season, the Sabers are looking for ways to get something going to avoid falling too far in the standings.

Souhegan is in the postseason, but wants to avoid finishing seventh or eighth and end up with a matchup against Bishop Guertin or Pinkerton in the quarterfinals.

"We're trying to win games and still can achieve our goal of getting to the final four," Bertrand said. "We have to play a lot better and coach better. It starts everywhere. We can't continue to come out like this. We have Bedford on Monday and we've got to find a way to win."