The Kearsarge Cougars hosted Coe-Brown Northwood Thursday night in Division 3 lacrosse action at Proctor Academy. After a sloppy first half from the Cougars, they fought their way back into the game, but came up just short, losing 9-7.
Coe-Brown sprinted out of the gates and quickly took control of the contest. They struck first, with 2:12 remaining in the first, as Jacob Radwan scored the first of his four goals on the night.
The Bears continued to attack and eventually got the score up to 4-0. “We have been working hard in practice,” said Coe-Brown Head Coach Tony DePalma. “We focused on the little details, and came out ready to play.”
This “ready-to-play” attitude was most evident in the first half performance of their goalie. Zach Sheehan recorded multiple impressive saves in the half and didn’t allow a goal through the first 23 minutes of play.
Kearsarge finally got on the board with ten seconds remaining in the half and went into the half down 4-1. “The first half was pretty awful, we only scored one goal,” said Cougars Head Coach Zach Matthews. “We have a very young team this year, a lot of inexperience.”
Their first half struggles appeared to be corrected after the half, however, as the Cougars began to claw their way back into the game. After falling down 5-1 early in the third, the Cougars scored two goals in a span of 17 seconds to close the gap, making the game 5-3 heading into the fourth quarter.
Kyle Cioffi scored all three of his goals in the fourth quarter as Kearsarge continued to fight their way back. With 7:39 remaining, they tied the game at five. What allowed the Cougars to keep pace with Coe-Brown was the consistent play of goalie Damien Petry who had nine big saves in the contest.
Unfortunately for Kearsarge, Coe-Brown would take over from that point. Ben Watson struck twice within 16 seconds, making the Bears’ lead 7-5. “We have great senior leadership. It seems like [Watson] always takes over in the fourth. He is a calming presence.”
The two squads would each tack on a couple more goals, leading to the final score of 9-7 in favor of Coe-Brown. “We just started playing too late,” said Matthews. “At the end, they just made a couple more plays than we did and pulled away.”
The win for the Bears lifts them to 2-1 on the young season, heading into their contest on the 27th against Pelham. Kearsarge’s loss drops the Cougars to 1-3, but they will hope to get back into the win column on the 26th at Monadnock.
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