Lakes Region Sports Roundup 4-21

High School Lacrosse: 

Laconia girls

Laconia wins rematch vs. Kearsarge

The match everyone wanted to see happened this week with the Lady Sachems traveling to Sutton to take on Kearsarge in a rematch of last year’s playoff classic where the Cougars knocked off the defending champs in dramatic fashion launching them to a state championship.  Coming into the game Laconia was flying high at 2-0 with easy wins while Kearsarge was struggling at 1-2.  It was a back-and-forth affair with Kearsarge jumping out to an early three-goal lead before Laconia chipped away, eventually taking a lead with a couple minutes left in the half.

Coach Bob Howe said the turning point came on a defensive stop. “That was huge, as it lead to two goals in the last 10 seconds of the first half giving us a 10-7 lead.”  Both teams defenses came to play in the second half but Laconia never let Kearsarge get within three goals enroute to a 15-11 victory.  Becca Howe lead the way for the Lady Sachems with seven goals and an assist while Skyler Tautkus netted six with three helpers. Coach Howe is very happy with his new goalie and another playmaker.  “I’m very pleased with the play of Sydney Stevens.  She’s making things happen with a lot of assists and goals of her own.  Hannah Dow is continuing to get better and better every day.” 

Laconia boys

Sachems stifle ConVal – The Sachems were sputtering out of the gate in their first match but dominated in their next two to go to 3-0 on the season with a 7-4 win over Trinity and 15-4 over ConVal.   ConVal came into Laconia hot with a 2-0 record but were soundly defeated by the Sachems.  Defensively, Stephen Towers stoned the Cougars for most of the game while Jordan Brown, Noah Shastany, Garrett Whitney and the rest of the defense clamped down on ConVal causing multiple turnovers and errant passes. 

Coach Andy Paronto said it was great to see Towers play well.  “He puts in the work and to see him locked in playing this well this early in the season is great he’s really dialed in seeing the ball well.” 

The fast break and set offense looks to be in mid-season form with Jake Steele and Riley Roy creating great scoring opportunities for each other and setting up others like Cole Reid and Parker Minor who each netted a pair of goals.  Drew Muzzy had a couple of highlight reel goals from the long pole middy while Steele lead with five and Roy collected four goals. 

Paronto says Muzzy was phenomenal.  “Drew was dominant on the wings and when he sees an opportunity he takes it.”

Gilford girls

Cole leads comeback – Playing on a grass field for the second time in a month, the girls evened their record at 1-1 with a nail-biter 14-13 win over St. Thomas in Dover today.

Down 8-4 at the half Coach David Rogacki said the win was multifaceted. “The comeback was led by Laurel Normandin's communication on offense and Olivia Harris's aggressive defense along with the timely substitution by Assistant Varsity Coach Sara Caveny.”

Shelby Cole's seven goals, two assists, and seven draws were supported by Normandin's five goals, Sophie Leggett's two goals and the defense of Harris and Abby Warren.

High school tennis

I-L girls win in the wind – Another Blustery day and another big win for The Lady Lakers 7-2 over Profile. Alyssa Floyd cruised to an easy win while Ava Duymazlar was in a dog fight with Emily Kerivan but snuck out a win 8-6.  Gell Nedeau, Belle Hoag and Ella St. Cyr won the other singles matches while the doubles went the way of Inter-Lakes 2-1. 

I-L boys handle hobbled Huskies -  The Lakers rolled to their fourth win in five matches 8-1 over Monadnock.  Nate Sullivan, Gable Busby, Jake Borsh and Same Noe rolled to easy singles wins while the Huskies did manage a hard fought doubles win with their #1 team. 

Coach Bill West reported the kids played great but the Huskies were undermanned. “They were missing their No. 1 singles player, who is pretty good.  The rest of the team is new to tennis.”

MA falls short – Tim Lahey continues to lead the Moultonborough Academy Panthers in wins but they lost a tough match to White Mountain 7-2.  Devin Rooney played well winning the other singles match over Myles Wharton.  The next match was a shutout at the hands of Littleton.  Lahey played steady but was out-dueled by Zack Lahout.  Coach Mio Kerr said his #4 Devin Rooney played tough against Todd Krol.  “They were pretty close, score doesn’t show it, they were at deuce a lot, but lost 2-8.  All the kids played hard but just fell short.”

Eagles drop Pythons – Another big one for the Gilford Eagles as they tamed the Pythons in Pelham 7-2 taking four of the six singles and three of the four doubles.  Christian Workman, Tyler Hemp, Colton Workman and Donnie Serral took their singles matches.  Pelham came into the match 4-1 with a tough loss to Bow earlier.  The Eagles have run their record to 4-0. 

Coach Terry Wilson says his #1 and #2 are his co-captains and will likely remain in those spots but other spots up for grabs.  “We have not had any challenges due to the weather but once we do 3-6 and some kids outside the top six will challenge for singles.” 

Wilson says Pelham is a good team and this was a good win.  “They are solid and should be in the playoffs. Might see them again.” 

High school softball

Belmont stuns Gilford – The Belmont Lady Red Raiders shocked the Gilford Lady Golden Eagles Wednesday, beating Gilford 3-1 behind the strong pitching of freshman Morgan Hall who picked up her first varsity win after pitching out of a jam in the first inning. She had 4 K’s, 3 BB and a hit batter.  Offensively Belmont was lead by Makenzie Donovan who went 3 for 4 with a double and Lizzie Fleming who went 2 for 3.

Coach Bill Clary said they were fortunate to get out of there with a win. “We escaped the third inning allowing only one run around three Gilford hits. Makenzie Donovan assisted on the third out of the inning with a throw home to Jordan Sargent to cut the run down with a great tag while not losing control of the ball.” Belmont scored two runs in the third on two hits and some walks and scored an insurance run in the sixth inning on a double by Donovan that scored Fleming who had reached on a single.  Coach Clary after the game: “It was a nice win on a cold day.”

Franklin holds on - Raymond scored two runs in the second inning for an early lead but Franklin came back with two in the bottom of the third. Franklin scored two more in the fourth and six in the fifth, then had to hold off a late game charge as Raymond scored four in the seventh and left the bases loaded.

Coach Skip Dubois said everyone contributed. “Meghan Johnston and Jill Swett each had two hits while Hannah Hicks, Lexi Lynch, Xiomara Head, Hanna Fife-Huckins and Mariah Haney each had a hit. Haney’s was a three-run triple in the fifth.” Johnston was the winning pitcher allowing six hits, walking five and striking out 10.

Laconia finds a win – A better performance by the Laconia Lady Sachems in the fourth game of the season as they beat Newfound 7-4 to get in the W column for the first time this year.  They opened up with a disappointing, mistake-filled loss to Belmont, then a slugfest 18-16 loss to Inter-Lakes and then a close match with Stevens going the Cardinals way 8-4 before this win. 

Coach Monique Swormstedt was happy with the outing by Nyla Dame. “She is getting stronger every game. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that she is only a freshman. She knows she carries the weight of the game on her shoulders and she generally rises to the occasion." 

Errors still seem to be troublesome for Laconia but Swormstedt says they continue to work on it. “We work so hard in practice until we get it right. With so many freshmen, we are still trying to find the right fit.”

Bianca Russo continues to rake from the leadoff spot while Dani French is the most versatile player at multiple positions. Swormstedt also reports Courtney Turpin is playing solid behind the dish. 

Panthers knock in 21 – The Moultonborough Academy Lady Panthers picked up victory #3 of the season 21-3 over Lin-Wood in Lincoln. Savannah Keyes had a stellar performance going five innings, allowing seven hits with six strikeouts and zero walks. The Panther offense banged out 13 hits on the chilly day led by sophomore Lauren Shipp, who went 4-5 with four stolen bases, senior Meg Weeks 3-3 with 4 RBI's and junior Maddie Perrotti 2-4 with a double, triple and three RBI's.

High school baseball

Siravo gets another win for Gilford – The Gilford Golden Eagles shutout the Belmont Red Raiders 4-0.  Adrian Siravo got the win with 6 1/3 innings, 3 hits, 8 K’s. Isaac Wallace came in for a two-out save. Cody Boucher broke a 0-0 tie with a two-out single driving in Tyler McKinney who had doubled. 

Eagles coach Eric Duquette says they need to get better. “We still need to improve the amount of quality at bats. We had 14 baserunners and only scored four runs. Fortunately for us, our pitching has been very good.” 

Siravo is 2-0 on season with 22Ks in 13 1/3 innings 0 runs and 3 hits.

Mayer drives in winning run – Another strong outing for Ryan Dee at Sanborn as the Laconia Sachems had to hold on for 6-5 win in nine innings.  Dee held the Indians to one run over the first six, but faltered in the seventh as Sanborn rallied to tie the score.  Cam Haynes came in to put out the fire giving up only one run over three innings earning the win.  Laconia scored the go-ahead run in the ninth on a two-out squib hit down the first base line by Jack Mayer scoring Tom Turpin.  Haynes also lead the 13 hit attack of the Sachems going 4-5 with 2 RBI, while Mayer was 4-4 and Turpin collected two hits.  Over two games, Dee has 13 innings pitched and a 1.07 ERA with 23 strikeouts.

MA, Linwood trade wins – Double header in Lincoln saw the Moultonborough Academy Panthers split with Linwood. MA held off Linwood in the continuation of a game suspended for snow last week. Michael Tolman was dominant, striking out seven of nine batters over the three final innings to clinch the game.  In game two, MA could do nothing right over the first three innings and lost a slugfest 20-15. Logan Gundersen pitched 4 1/3 shutout innings to let MA close the gap, but the Panthers came up short despite outhitting Linwood 18-11 in the game.  Trevor Greene went 4-5, Jon Bryant went 4-6, Micheal Tolman and Logan Gundersen had 3 hits apiece.

High school track

Gilford girls cruise in relays – Last Saturday the Gilford girls placed seventh out of 30 total teams. In front of them was one DI and five DII teams so they did great!

Coach Joe Wernig said his team worked through the elements.  “Conditions were cold and the drive was long but both relays continued where they left off last year. 4x100 relay of Lauren Dean, Laurel Gingrich, Brianna and Natalie Fraser ran away with the win in a time of 53.40...The 4x400 relay of Lauren, Nat, Bri and Kaitlyn Callahan cruised to victory in 4:22.95, 6 seconds faster than the next team.” 

Lauren Dean placed second in 400m followed by Natalie right behind her in third.  Sophomore Kati Gamache placed 10th in the javelin with a personal best of 80' 10"  Highlight for girls was not only the relay teams but the 800 meter runners ran some great races!...Seniors Carly White, Aria Stephan and Kaitlyn Callahan pushed each other to finish strong in their heat.  Sophomore Elena Uicker and Freshman Caroline Drouin both had impressive runs, setting personal bests! 

The boys placed 15th out of 27.  Connor Legget had a huge win in the 300m hurdles and Korey Weston finished fourth in the javelin with a toss of 145' 6", a personal best.  Sandor Gamache placed sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 38' 6'.  Coach Wernig was happy with the results.  “Despite the cold weather and long day, it was another good result for the Gilford track team with 47 athletes competing.”

The Road Ahead:

Speaking of Track and Field today the Winnisquam invitational takes place in Tilton starting at 9am.  Teams from Belmont, Franklin, Gilford, Interlakes, Laconia, Moultonborough, Newfound and Prospect Mountain will participate.  We’ll have some results in Tuesday’s edition.

Keith Murray is the host of Lakes Region voice of Sports on 107.3FM WEMJ Saturday and Sunday Mornings at 9am and can be heard on WEEI 101.5FM with daily local sports updates.  Reach Keith by email: Sports@1015WEEI.com