Exeter 9  Holderness 10
Wed., 5/21, Holderness - A fierce 4th quarter rally fell just short of making up for 36 minutes of lackluster play as Exeter fell victim to a scrappy Holderness team 10-9. Holderness played a very smart ball control game that featured great face-off work and real patience at the offensive end of the field. Exeter was unable to get into any type of offensive rhythm during most of the game, and Holderness took advantage of defensive mistakes when Exeter became too anxious. The halftime deficit for Exeter was only 6-3 thanks to goals by Sloan Smith, Tom Petty, and Ryan Beer, but Holderness' domination of the ball was greater than the score indicated. To make matters worse, Exeter continued their uninspired play in the 3rd quarter, and managed to fall even further behind by a 10-5 margin. Finally in the 4th quarter the real Exeter team took the field. Holderness was clearly trying to run the clock down on every possession, but the pressure defense of Wiley Dornseif, Will Tuttle, Stew Stout, and Tom Rubel started to turn the ball over to the offense. Suresh Jones started the 4th quarter scoring on a feed from Taylor Evans. When Taylor finally solved the Holderness domination of face-offs, the 4th quarter comeback was able to begin. While Taylor was winning all the face-offs in the 4th quarter, and the offense playing with confidence, the Holderness lead diminished from five at the start of the 4th quarter, to just one with more than four minutes to go in the game. Mike Hines and Chris Mottau joined Suresh in making key shots to lead the 4th quarter rally. However, with the score 10-9 and still over four minutes to play, Holderness gained possession on an Exeter face-off violation. Holderness continued their strategy of stalling the game away, so when Exeter was called for a 30-second holding penalty with only 2:34 seconds left in the game, it did not look good for the BIG RED. Not only did the man-down unit prevent a Holderness insurance goal, but they gained control of the ball, and they also forced Holderness into a penalty for delaying the game. Exeter's man-up offense subsequently generated some quality shots, but the Middlebury bound Holderness senior goalie came up with some big saves. Two more Holderness 30-second penalties at the 1:21 mark and the 0:15 mark gave Exeter more opportunities to tie the game, but it was not to be. Playing Holderness away on the Wednesday between the Deerfield and Andover games has historically been a challenge for Exeter lacrosse teams, and this year was no different. Holderness deserves much credit for playing hard and smart lacrosse in their last game of the season. Hopefully Exeter will bounce back in the big game against Andover.
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Team	1st quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter	Game Total
Exeter	1	2	2	4	9
Holderness	2	4	4	0	10

Game Scoring - Goals - Smith(2), Jones(2), Petty, Hines, Mottau, Beer, Evans,

                           Assists -Hines(2), Evans (2), Mottau

Saves/Shots on Goal - Rodier 7/17