Dover sneaks by Souhegan to win D2 boys lacrosse

EXETER – Dylan Stohrer scored with less than a second remaining to give the Dover High School boys lacrosse team an 8-7 win over Souhegan in the Division II final Tuesday night at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

Stohrer had six goals, but none was bigger that broke the tie with 0.6 seconds left in the game. Eric Groleau added two goals for the No. 2 Green Wave, which had lost to No. 1 Souhegan in overtime during the regular season.

Mike VanSickle led the Sabers with three goals while Zadek Burstein and Brendan Laine each had two. Goalie Jonathan Barker played well in the loss.

Souhegan controlled play early, but it was Dover that got on the board first. Barker stopped two shots that went low, but the Green Wave got the ball back and Stohrer got a shot up high to beat the Sabers’ goalie for a 1-0 lead.

VanSickle got the goal back for Souhegan late in the first quarter. Play was stopped with 3.7 seconds left, and the Sabers caught Dover off guard on the restart. VanSickle took a pass from MacKenna Walker, went right through the middle of the defense and beat Nick Corain to tie the game.

The Sabers took the lead with three minutes into the second quarter on another goal by VanSickle, and after a Dover penalty, Souhegan scored 30 seconds later, this time on a goal by Burstein that made it 3-1.

The Green Wave appeared to cut the lead to one with 4:05 left in the half, but a Souhegan penalty on Barker nullified the goal and led to a 10-minute delay while officials determined whether Nick King, Souhegan’s backup goalie, was eligible to play.

Down a man, the Sabers got control of the ball and marched down the field, with Laine scoring to make it 4-1. But the Green Wave came right back with a goal by Stohrer 19 seconds later to make it 4-2.

The Green Wave closed within one on a goal by Groleau with under two minutes gone in the third quarter. But the Sabers answered back later in the quarter, taking advantage of two Dover penalties to go up 6-3.

Laine made it a four-goal lead for Souhegan just 35 seconds into the fourth, but Stohrer came right back down to score 25 seconds later to make it 7-4. With 4:43 left to play, Stohrer scored again and Dover added two more goals in the next three minutes to tie the game with 1:31 to go.

Souhegan had a chance to go ahead with under a minute to go, but a Corain stopped a shot by Kyle Robertson and Burstein appeared to miss the net on the rebound. The Green Wave got possession of the ball and called a timeout.

Dover took a shot at  Barker right away, but the ball went wide and the Green Wave were able to retain possession with five seconds left. Stohrer got the ball back, made his move and scored with six-tenths of a second left to play.