Patience pays off as New Hampshire beats Vermont in Twin State All-Star boys lacrosse game (video)

HANOVER – With the score tied at the end of one quarter of Saturday’s Twin State All-Star boys lacrosse game, the all-stars from New Hampshire knew what they needed to do.

After getting a couple quick goals in the first quarter, New Hampshire went the final 12 minutes of the frame without a goal, as Vermont was able to make adjustments to slow the Granite Staters down.

New Hampshire came out with a more patient approach in the second quarter and methodically built the lead back up, taking a five-goal lead into halftime on the way to a 22-12 win over Vermont in the 33rd boys game, hosted by the Hanover Lions, at Hanover High School.

A 5-0 run over the first 10 minutes of the second helped New Hampshire take the lead for good, as Alec Mitchell (Winnacunnet) had four goals and two assists and Cooper Ketcham (Dover) also scored four times. Beckett Rath (Winnacunnet) added three goals and Eli Ibarguen (Plymouth) had a goal and three assists while Logan Carter (Dover) and Alex Moody (Oyster River) each had a goal and two assists.

Brody Helton (Bedford) and Benji Madory (Lebanon) had two goals apiece and Liam Yeatman (Concord) had two assists while Tyler Benzekri (Nashua South), Tyler Barry (Pinkerton), Landon Petry (Timberlane) and Garrett Ward (Coe-Brown) had a goal apiece.

Gavin Burwell (Pinkerton) finished with eight saves and Mason Tremblay (Merrimack) had five stops while Mitchell and Cole Levesque (Oyster River) teamed up to help New Hampshire wint 26 of 38 faceoffs.

“We were kind of like, we’ve got to get the groundballs,” Ketcham said of the start of the second quarter. “We’ve got to possess the ball, give our defense a break. We just kept communicating and we were playing the best offense when we were settled, instead of just pushing transition.”

Helton broke the tie with 12:47 left in the first half (the teams played 15-minute quarters), scoring off an assist from Carter, who added a goal 2:26 later, with Yeatman getting an assist. Petry scored with 7:01 to go in the second to make it 7-4 and Ketcham and Mitchell followed with back-t0-back goals just 37 seconds apart for a 9-4 lead.

“When they tied it up, we weren’t settling down on offense,” Mitchell said. “We were kind of rushing the next play. We just needed to reign it in as a team. If we play our game, we’ll be up, and we did just that.”

The teams traded goals over the final two-plus minutes of the half to make it 11-6 New Hampshire at the break, and Mitchell wasted little time coming out of the half, as he won the faceoff and scored just three second in for a 12-6 lead.

“I love to call those a juice goal,” he said. “Just bringing juice to the team. Three seconds, that’s like Lightning McQueen fast. I don’t know if they didn’t start the clock on time, but hey, I’ll take three seconds.”

The lead was 18-9 going into the fourth and three goals in a row from Ketcham, Mitchell and Ward put the game into running time with a little more than 11 minutes remaining.

Vermont got four goals from Logan McNulty (Middlebury Union) while Joe Livingston (Burr and Burton Academy) added three goals and two assists and Jack McCostis (Burr and Burton) had two goals and an assist. Graham Thompson (Hartford) made eight saves while playing a little more than a quarter.