Third-quarter run key as Derryfield girls lacrosse beats Pelham in D3 prelims (video)

MANCHESTER - There are things the Derryfield School girls lacrosse team focuses on accomplishing going into every game.

In the first half of Tuesday's Division III preliminary-round game, the Cougars weren't doing any of them and found themselves trailing Pelham at the break.

After discussing what adjustments needed to be made, No. 6 Derryfield dominated the third quarter, outscoring the No. 11 Pythons 7-0 in the frame, on the way to a 15-12 win over Pelham to advance to the D3 quarterfinals.

The Cougars (13-3) will now play Thursday at 4 p.m. against No. 3 Hopkinton (13-2), which beat No. 14 ConVal in its prelim.

Pelham (7-8), which lost to Derryfield 16-7 on April 25, had a 6-4 lead early in the second quarter, and after the Cougars tied it at 6, the Pythons scored twice in the final two minutes to take an 8-6 lead into the break.

"We talked about making the smarter decision," Derryfield coach Erin Boucher said of the team's halftime. "We’ve talked about turning down good for great in all of our games, and so we talked about how we were not doing that. We were not making passes at the right time, we were not taking high-percentage shots."

Finley Llewellyn had five goals and two assists and Maddy Paolino scored four goals and had three assists, as Derryfield got the run up to 9-1 in the second half before Pelham scored three times in the final six minutes.

Alex Benson added three goals and an assist while Teagan Peabody (one assist) and Charlotte Belanger had a goal apiece while Chloe Bremberg had four assists.

The biggest change for the Cougars in the second half came at the draw, where they controlled all eight in the third quarter to keep possession for most the frame. Boucher gave credit to assistant coach Margo Teeters for working with Paolino and Belanger to figure out the second-half adjustments, which included rotating Bri Murray and Peabody with Benson and Chloe Larson on the circle.

"Margo really has been our draw specialist working with Maddy and Charlotte, and hear what they were seeing from Pelham and make small adjustments," Boucher said. "I’m always confident about the 50-50 girls on the outside. Just a lot of people that we trust to get to the ball first and pick it up clean."

Ella DeSimone led the Pythons with seven goals and an assist while Katherine Carroll scored twice and had an assist. Jessica Phillips and Julianne Rocha had a goal and an assist apiece and Mia Wilkins also scored while Addison Breault made seven saves.

"I was really proud of the girls, they worked really hard, first-year Pelham coach Alesha Duprez said. "This is a totally different turnout from when we first played Derryfield. I knew we could give them good competition (Tuesday), so I’m proud of how far they’ve come."

Breault made a couple of those saves late in the second quarter to help Pelham get the lead back, but in the third, Derryfield was able to improve its shot selection, in part because it improved its movement without the ball.

"We were able to stay bigger and find the weakness in their defense and expose some of the holes," Boucher said. "Possession is the name of the game and we were able to keep possession better in the second half and take advantage of our attacking movement."

Benson got the scoring started, off an assist from Paolino, with 9:10 left in the third, and the Cougars added three goals in 1:04 to take a 10-8 lead and force a Pelham timeout with 6:25 left in the quarter.

Paolino scored off an assist from Benson out of the timeout and then Benson added another, this time off a feed from Bremberg, for a 12-8 lead. Llewellyn then scored in the final minute of the third to give Derryfield a five-goal lead going into the fourth.

It looked like Pelham stopped the run to open the fourth, but a goal was waved off on an offsides call against the Pythons. Derryfield answered with a goal from Llewellyn to make it 14-8 with 9:17 remaining.

Pelham was able to hang around, as Rocha scored with 5:08 to play to make it 15-10 Derryfield. DeSimone scored twice in 1:19 to make it a three-goal game, but the Cougars controlled the ensuing possession and ran out the final 2:49 of the game.

"I think the opportunity to move the ball under pressure was definitely good," Boucher said. "It turned into a bit of a mental game at points. I’m really impressed with how they rose to the occasion and finished it out for sure."