Souhegan boys lacrosse turns in solid defensive effort to beat Hanover in D1 quarterfinal

AMHERST - Keith Bertand left the field after Saturday's Division I boys lacrosse quarterfinal feeling prouder than he ever has of his Souhegan High School team.

The Sabers coach had plenty of reason for that feeling.

Down two starting defenders for most of the game, No. 4 Souhegan was able to stifle No. 5 Hanover's offense for most of the game and did just enough offensively to pull out a 6-3 win over the Marauders. The win sends the Sabers to the semifinals for the first time since 2016, where they will face No. 1 Bishop Guertin on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

Souhegan (13-5, No. 5 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) held Hanover to one 6-on-6 goal while John Lohnes made seven of his 13 saves in the fourth quarter, including two sprawling saves late in the game that kept the Marauders (11-4, No. 6) from getting any closer.

"I’ve never walked off a lacrosse field prouder of a team than I am now," Bertrand said. "I couldn’t be prouder of the way the defense played. John Lohnes played out of his mind."

Nick Jordan had three goals for the Sabers while Jack Hall had a goal and an assist and Tyler Hall and Curtis Redd had a goal apiece.

But with senior captain Jack Manning out of the lineup, and with Andrew Merenda going down early in the game, Souhegan was left with just three long poles - all of whom are underclassmen - for the rest of the game.

"We were down Jack Manning, who is our rock," Bertrand said. "We went down another defenseman in Andrew Merenda. We played three poles the whole game, including a freshman (Billy Davidson). We had all underclassmen out there, including Will Darnell and Luke Manning."

It was a feat that didn't go unnoticed by Hanover coach Ryan Gardner.

"I think you have to give Souhegan’s defense some credit," he said. "They’re down one or two poles and they’ve got some great depth defensively. Their goalie played out of his mind, especially right at the end. He had some incredible saves."

Noah Fahey had a goal and an assist for the Marauders, while Caleb Morse and Charlie Baughman added a goal apiece. Mason Winter made 11 saves to keep Hanover in it.

The game was scoreless until Redd put Souhegan on the board with 5:35 left in the first quarter, and Jordan made it 2-0 with 1:58 remaining. But Rob McGrath was called for a push with 18 seconds left in the quarter and Hanover capitalized, getting a manup goal from Morse with 2.5 seconds left in the quarter.

Jordan put the Sabers back up by two goals with his second of the game with 7:24 to play in the second quarter, but Fahey scored with 2:24 left in the half to make it a 3-2 game at the break.

"We’ve been in that situation a lot this year," Gardner said. "A lot of our games have been pretty close, they’ve been close at halftime or we’ve been behind. We’re pretty comfortable playing from behind."

Hanover looked like it might tie the game early in the third quarter when, with McGrath off for another push, Tage Colberg bounced a shot that went high as Lohnes went to the ground. But the ball also cleared the top of the goal and Souhegan recovered.

Moments later, Winter made back-to-back saves, but after the second on, Jordan was able to get the ground ball in between three Hanover players and tucked a shot just inside the top of the goal to make it 4-2 with 7:05 left in the third.

Tyler Hall added a goal with 2:42 to go in the third and Jack Hall scored 3:50 into the fourth to put Souhegan up 6-2 and the Sabers turned the game over to their defense and Lohnes.

"He’s just as good as any other goalie in the state," Bertrand said. "I think they are hungry. They wanted it so bad. After last year, when we went 5-12 and everyone is telling us we’re no good.

All year, these guys, these seniors came together and said it’s not going to happen again," Bertrand said. "After we lost to Pinkerton (on May 7), guys made conscious decisions to play better and here we are, nine wins later and going to the final four."