Souhegan boys lacrosse withstands Timberlane comeback to get 4th straight win (video)

PLAISTOW - Keith Bertrand gave the Souhegan High School boys lacrosse team an option in the final minute of Saturday's game against Timberlane.

The coach could up with a play for the Sabers to run to try to score the game-winning goal. Or they could give the ball to Tyler Hall and see what he could do.

Souhegan opted to see what its senior captain could do, and after getting the ball on the wing, Hall carried around the back of the cage and tucked a shot off the shoulder of Timberlane goalie Ben Lamarre and in to give the Sabers a 9-8 win over the Owls in a Division I contest.

The goal was the first for the Sabers (8-5, No. 9 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) in over 13 minutes, as they watched Timberlane come back from an 8-4 deficit late in the third quarter to tie the game with 1:25 left in regulation.

The Owls (6-7, ARV) won the ensuing faceoff, but couldn't get the ball in in time and turned it over with 1:08 remaining. The Sabers took a timeout with 57.6 seconds left to set up the game-winner.

"One of our starting attackmen got dinged up, so we moved a midfielder (Hall) down to attack," Bertrand said. "We were trying to decide if we wanted to invert. We felt good when Tyler got the ball and that wing kind of cleared out, that he could get top side because he’s a strong bull dodger."

Hall scored with 29.5 seconds left in the game and felt like that was going to be enough for Souhegan to come out with a win.

"Let’s just play it out," Hall said of the possession. "I know we can play well by ourselves, instead of having a setup play. We needed to get back in the groove there. I thought I’d take it and look what happened."

Timberlane won the faceoff again, but turned it over with 7.2 seconds to go and Souhegan was able to run out the clock.

"We had a shot, we’ve just got to get the ball in," Timberlane coach Ken Blaszka said of the final sequence. "I told them during the timeout, the next shot goes in, it all depends on who is shooting. It was that kind of game."

Hall finished with two goals and an assist for the Sabers while Nick Jordan had four goals and Curtis Redd had three goals and two assists.

Timberlane got two goals and an assist from Matt Licata while Cody Fleming and Jeremy Wycoff each scored twice. Jack Gray also had a goal and an assist and Lamarre made nine saves, including four in the fourth quarter while the Owls were making their comeback.

Souhegan had led 5-2 at halftime and scored twice in 19 seconds to take an 8-4 lead with 1:58 left in the third quarter. But Fleming got a goal with 21 seconds left in the frame to make it 8-5 at the end of three and the Owls scored 40 seconds into the fourth to cut the lead to two.

With 3:02 left in regulation, Fleming ripped a shot that got over the stick of goalie John Lohnes (eight saves) and under the cross bar to make it 8-7. Timberlane got the ball back and took a timeout with 1:32 left.

"Go to the cage like a man and shoot the ball," Blaszka said. "We were driving and they were back on their heels. I didn’t want to call the timeout, I was going to wait on it, but we went back to the same kid who had the ball, Jeremy (Wycoff), and I felt like we had a good drive to the cage there. That’s what I was hoping to do and it worked."

Wycoff scored seven seconds after the timeout to tie the game, but Souhegan was able to come out with the victory.

"I feel like we’re definitely rising to the occasion right now, to where we should be," Hall said. "These are close games, but I’m glad we’re pulling it because is shows what we can do. We don’t always want the games to be close, but if we keep doing what we’re doing, I think we’ll be fine."