St. Thomas boys lacrosse gets back on track, beats Timberlane in D2 prelim

PLAISTOW - As the regular season came to an end, Sean Houlahan tried to keep the St. Thomas High School boys lacrosse team on the right track by telling them that anything could happen in the playoffs.

But what shape would the Saints be in once the postseason started?

After winning seven of their first nine games, the Saints ended the season having to play their final six games in eight days, with four of those against playoff teams. St. Thomas lost five of six and dropped down to No. 10 in the standings.

None of that seemed to matter Wednesday, as the Saints rallied from an early deficit to knock off No. 7 Timberlane 14-5 in the Division II preliminary round. The win means that, for the third straight year, St. Thomas will play at No. 2 Derryfield in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 5 p.m.

"I think this was probably our first complete game," Houlahan said. "I tell the kids that the teams that get hot in the playoffs will be successful. They showed me that they wanted to be here. They played a complete game offensively and defensively."

St. Thomas (9-8) went on an 8-1 run to end the first half, erasing a two-goal deficit, and the Saints never let up in the second half, controlling much of the pace.

Jojo Grella led the way with five goals and two assists - including the junior's hundredth career goal - while Patrick Vetter had three goals and two assists and Aidan Crisp had two goals and an assist.

Andrew Geppert also had two goals for the Saints and Jake Proulx had a goal and two assists while Brendan Tersolo also scored and Will Kaspari had an assist. Peter Schultz made 14 saves and St. Thomas won 13 of 21 faceoffs.

Timberlane (9-6) got four goals from Michael Bowman while Cameron Murphy also scored and Matt Licata and Christopher Earl each had an assist. Nathan Taylor made 11 saves.

"It feels really good, it's special," Grella said of the milestone. "The offense put a lot of points up. We had them locked down. Our defense played amazing.

"We've been working on the offense the whole year. We haven't really been able to grasp it, I guess, and (Wednesday) we were all connected. We were all working (together)."

Grella could see that cohesiveness even when the Owls took a 3-1 lead with 5:16 remaining in the first quarter. The Saints won the ensuing faceoff, got a couple of shots off and managed to maintain possession, leading to a goal by Crisp with 4:17 to go in the first.

St. Thomas tacked on two more goals in the next 28 seconds to take a 4-3 lead, and after Timberlane tied it at 4 a minute later, Tersolo gave the Saints the lead for good with 1:08 left in the first.

"We weren't fazed," Grella said. "We've been a second-half team and we just pushed it to the first quarter. I don't think that affected us."

Goals by Grella and Geppert gave St. Thomas a 7-4 lead with 6:42 left in the half when Timberlane looked like it might be able to swing momentum. The Owls won the faceoff following Geppert's goal and were able to keep possession for the next three minutes, getting off four shots.

But the Saints were able to hold off Timberlane and got the ball back with 3:27 to go in the half. Vetter scored with 3:10 to go before halftime to make it 8-4, and then added another with 1:05 remaining to give the Saints a five-goal lead.

Bowman scored for the Owls to open the second half, but that was as close as Timberlane would get.