Salem boys lacrosse shuts down Nashua South to pick up win

NASHUA – Sebastian Farah hopes he can be a stabilizing force at the back end of the Salem High School boys lacrosse team.

When the Blue Devils need a big save, the junior goalie feels he can provide it, and give the team a boost of momentum. Against Nashua South on Saturday, Farah gave Salem two such saves.

With the Blue Devils having gone scoreless for more than 12 minutes, Farah stopped two back-to-back shots from in close by the Panthers in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Moments later, Salem scored two goals in a span of 1:23 to take a four-goal lead on the way to a 9-3 win over South in Division I action at Stellos Stadium.

The saves were part of the 13 shots Farah stopped, as Salem (2-1) overcame some halftime adjustments by South to hold the Panthers without a goal for the final 17 minutes of the game.

“As a team, we’re just trying to stay tight,” Farah said of the defense. “Coach (Mark White) tells us to play as a fist and protect the middle. We’re OK with giving up outside shots.

“I trust my defenders to stay tight and they trust me to save the shot. Then again, on the other end, once we get it, we like to take the long possessions to give the defense a break and settle back down. I think I can make a save and my team gets momentum off that and gets better. They feel they can do more and get confidence off that.”

Nick Gore led the Salem offense with three goals and Michael Ference added two goals while Kyle Svenson, Ben Genest, Layne Parenti and Mitch McGinn had a goal apiece.

But for the entire third quarter, Salem struggled with some defensive adjustments the Panthers (0-2) made at halftime.

“They were kind of pressuring out on the adjacents, so we couldn’t make those easy passes,” White said. “We felt a little more pressure and we had to adjust. It caught us off guard in the third, but we figured it out and made the adjustment in the fourth.”

For the Panthers (0-2), it was the second straight game where they’ve been close going into the fourth quarter and watched the opponent extend the lead. In a 12-6 loss Thursday to Londonderry, South was outscored 6-1 in the final 12 minutes.

“I felt like the second half they were in stall mode,” South coach Bill Monson said. “When they scored, it was because we were locking off the adjacent and took a poor angle. Once that happens, we gave them a free shot. Credit to them because they have to make a play, they did a good job and we didn’t.”

Devin Linscott had a goal and an assist for South and Sean Holland had two assists. Brett Shaughnessy and Shane Puleo also had goals while Nate Radin made four saves.

Salem took a 1-0 lead on Svenson’s goal just 1:37 into the game, and although the Blue Devils couldn’t add to that for most of the quarter, they were able to keep South off the board. A turnover by the Panthers late in the quarter led to a transition goal by Ference with 16.4 left in the first to make it 2-0, and Gore put Salem up 3-0 1:38 into the second.

Shaughnessy answered 51 seconds later for South, getting the Panthers on the board, but goals by Ference and Parenti made it 5-1 Salem with 3:59 left in the half.

Puleo’s goal with 1:58 remaining cut it to 5-2 going into halftime and South came out with more pressure on defense in the second half. Salem turned the ball over six times in the quarter and took just two shots.

But the Panthers couldn’t do much on offense either, at least until Linscott made it 5-3 with 5:06 left in the third. South won the ensuing faceoff, but turned the ball over, and struggled to put something together on offense after that.

“We had some defensive sets that we put in place and the guys really bought in,” White said. “It allowed us to keep these guys around the perimeter and have the outside shots taken. We leave those for Sebastian to eat up.”