Cheap Cruises

MANCHESTER – Lightning struck frequently Saturday, playing havoc with the playoff schedule at Manchester Memorial’s Chabot-McDonough Field and the Division I girls lacrosse semifinal between second-seeded Souhegan and third seeded Londonderry.

The same cycle of events – the Lancers carrying the play to start, a big save by Sabers goalie Kate Dobbs, and a quick counterattacking goal by Souhegan’s Tyler Petropulos – occurred to start both halves, cheap cruises setting the tone for the Sabers to run away with a surprisingly easy 13-5 victory. The teams had played a much closer regular season game, where Souhegan triumphed 12-11.

The Sabers now advance to face the winner of today’s 5:30 showdown between fourth-seeded Nashua South and undefeated, top-seeded Pinkerton. The game, scheduled to follow the Lancers-Sabers clash, cheap cruises got pushed right off the schedule after a wild storm caused a 2-hour, 40-minute delay in the middle of a Division II playoff game between Portsmouth and Merrimack Valley.

Waiting nearly three unexpected hours for your game to start would cause lethargy in many athletes, but Petropulos cheap cruises clearly spent the extra time sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, listening to Metallica, watching “Braveheart”, or some other activity athletes use to fire themselves up. The Souhegan junior had a hat trick within 12 minutes, finishing with four goals to lead the Sabers.

“She’s not our leading scorer,cheap cruises but she certainly is the one the whole team looks to control things right off the draw,” Sabers coach Maren Petropulos said. “She’s plays full field, she never stops, and I think sometimes she’s able to put a spark.”

Dobbs, for her part, was a lethal combination of great and lucky. The junior goalie made two brilliant saves immediately, and nine overall, but also benefited from three great Londonderry chances ringing off the goalposts.

“Kate has really come up with some big saves in the last half of our season,” Petropulos said. “She’s made a huge cheap cruises difference. Kate really knows what she’s doing this year.”

It could have been a totally different game if Londonderry scored on their two early chances, but it hurt worse when Souhegan composed itself and scored the game’s opening three goals.

“You’ve got to get your shots on net to get them to go in, their goalie made some good saves,” Lancers coach Bob Slater cheap cruises said. “We just didn’t control the ball as much as Souhegan did.”

Londonderry answered with two quick goals, but the Sabers responded with six of the next eight to give themselves a comfortable 8-4 lead at the half. Another successful start to the half (four unanswered goals) put the game out of reach early in the second.

Souhegan benefited from a balanced scoring attack, aside from Petropulos’ heroics. Tamara Bender had two goals, cheap cruises and Delaney Brault had a goal and two assists, but the Sabers got goals from eight different players. Kayla Green and Dana Boyle led the Lancers with two goals cheap cruises each.