Exeter 5   NMH 9
Exeter, NH , Saturday, May 9th - Exeter played their best individual and team defense against an athletic NMH team for the first 35 minutes of this low scoring defensive contest and held a 3-0 lead and the ball with under three minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Matt Hatch was playing great defense on the top NMH middie, the SS defenders Tom Jardine and Mike Sotak were playing very tough, and close defensemen Matt Callahan, Alex Akoto, and Adrien Fogelquist limited NMH to ineffective shots from the outside and were causing turnovers. Exeter’s Charlie Gill had just scored his 2nd goal of the game off a beautiful Max Cassidy assist and NMH needed to call a timeout to regroup. Exeter won the faceoff and had the ball and instructions to maintain possession until the last shot of the quarter in order to maintain at least the 3-0 lead. Instead, at the two-minute mark, an ill-advised shot from too far out against the very good NMH goalkeeper was the first in a string of Exeter mental and physical mistakes that ultimately led to an NMH awakening and their amazing comeback victory. NMH cleared the ball and eventually scored their first goal of the game with 34 seconds left in the 3rd period on a poor-angled desperation shot from the right of the goal. Incredibly, NMH won the faceoff and took another desperation and poor-angled shot from the other side of the goal that somehow managed to cross the goal line with exactly 1 second on the clock. After 35.5 minutes of shutout lacrosse, the momentum going into the 4th quarter was now with NMH. Despite an Eric Slingerland goal 1 minute into the 4th quarter to increase Exeter’s lead to 4-2, the NMH team had new life and was playing with increased confidence, energy, and skill. Similar to the 3rd quarter debacle at KUA, Exeter inexplicably yielded 5 unanswered NMH goals in a 1.5 minute time span from the 8 minute mark of the final quarter to the 6.5 minute mark of the final quarter. Exeter could do nothing right, and NMH could do nothing wrong. It was the perfect storm. An Exeter timeout in the middle of this NMH tidal wave did not stop the bleeding and now Exeter was down 7-4. Gabo Borunda’s unassisted goal with just under 6 minutes to play cut the margin to two, but Exeter was forced into a pressing and risk-taking defense because of the little time left in the game. Although Exeter forced some turnovers, the offense could not score any more goals against the stiffening NMH defense and goalkeeper. NMH managed two more goals in the final 2 minutes as Exeter continued to scramble frantically and desperately. Unfortunately, this will have to be another lesson to the young Exeter squad that you have to play smart and consistently for the full 48 minutes. Hopefully, it will be a lesson they will take into the remaining 4 games of the season. video highlights

Team	1st quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter	Game Total
Exeter	1	0	2	2	5
NMH	0	0	2	7	9

Game Scoring - Goals - Slingerland, Gill (2), Cassidy, Borunda

                           Assists - Cassidy (2), Johnson, Borunda

Faceoffs Won/ Faceoff Attempted-Sotak 5/13, Fenkell 2/3

Saves/Shots on Goal - Page 10/19