Laconia starts fast, hangs on to beat Pelham in D3 boys lacrosse final (video)

EXETER – Andy Paronto has watched his Laconia High School boys lacrosse team be one that possesses the ball and runs its offense to score goals.

But in Saturday’s Division III championship game against Pelham, the Sachems found themselves with a couple of breakaways early on that gave them a comfortable cushion.

And then possession disappeared.

Pelham won eight of 10 faceoffs in the first half and controlled possession, but it was Laconia that had the commanding lead at halftime, thanks in part to the play of goalie Stephen Towers.

Towers made 11 of his 19 saves in the first half, and the No. 1 Sachems turned a five-goal lead at halftime into a 9-2 advantage on the way to an 11-7 win over No. 6 Pelham at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

The win gives Laconia a record of 18-0 on the season, and is the team’s first championship since it won the last of three straight titles in 2005.

“It’s unbelievable,” Paronto said. “I’m so proud of the kids, they worked so hard. When you’re a coach, you’re just along for the ride. The kids worked and they deserved it. You could tell, I don’t think we were ever really satisfied.

“We were lucky to get those early goals to get us the good lead. To be in the driver’s seat helped us through this game. We knew they were going to put on a run and they certainly did in the fourth quarter. We were able to hang on with some composure and some desperation.”

The Sachems grabbed the lead just 22 seconds in when Riley Roy scored in transition after a turnover by Pelham (12-5), and the sophomore netted his second of the game 2:02 later to make it 2-0.

Brenden Mooney scored the first of his four goals with 6:47 left in the first quarter and it was 3-0, even though the Pythons had controlled time of possession.

“There were a little bit of nerves because they had the ball so much for the first half,” Mooney said. “We talked about that at halftime, it was about 70-30 them in (time of) possession. We were hoping to just possess the ball on offense and keep it on our side a little bit and score some goals.”

Mooney also had two assists while Roy also finished with four goals – two in each half – and Trevor Weeks had a goal and three assists.

But it was Towers’ play in the first half, when Pelham seemed to be firing shot after shot, that helped keep the Sachems in front.

“Stephen has been great all year,” Paronto said. “We lost an all-state goalie last year. Stephen stepped in as a sophomore and he’s just done a great job. The progression that he’s made, starting at indoor, and obviously Stephen, you see the game he had here, that says what his character is and how much he’s improved and his focus on the game. It was great.”

Laconia went up 4-0 on Mooney’s second goal 1:06 into the second quarter before Connor Halloran got Pelham on the board with the first of his four goals with 8:21 left in the half. Devon Russell would also score for the Pythons in the second quarter, making it 5-2 Laconia, but Jacob Ellis and Mooney each scored in the final minute to make it 7-2 at halftime.

The Sachems were able to extend the lead to 9-2 early in the third quarter on goals by Jakob Steele and Roy, and Laconia was able to keep control of possession for most of the rest of the quarter. Late in the frame, Towers made another big save, this time on Pelham’s Devyn Tucci from point-blank, to keep it a seven-goal game going into the fourth.

“It looked like we had control, but we knew they’d make a run and knew they were a quality team,” Paronto said. “We had to be ready. That was the message at halftime. We’ve played playoff lacrosse all year, that’s what we’ve been doing. To come out and do that and get the goals when we needed them was huge.”

Pelham got the lead back down to five on two goals by Halloran to open the fourth, but Laconia stretched the lead back to seven, going up 11-4 on Roy’s fourth goal of the game with 3:31 to play.

But the Pythons didn’t let up, making it 11-5 just 27 seconds later, and Pelham’s Robert Ryan made it 11-6 with 2:07 to play. After Laconia was flagged for being offside, Pelham took advantage, getting a goal from Kyle Lloyd to cut the lead to 11-7 with 1:24 remaining.

Pelham won the ensuing faceoff – the Pythons were 16 of 21 on them for the day – but turned the ball over and Laconia was able to take enough time off the clock to wrapup the win.

“It’s huge to go undefeated,” Mooney said. “We knew we could do it at the beginning of the year. We had a lot of guys coming back, we lost our goalie, but we knew Stephen Towers is a great goalie and he showed it (Saturday). He stood on his head and made some huge saves for us.”