BY MATT STOUT
The play didn’t look like one a first-year varsity team could execute. Then again, the Derryfield School boys lacrosse team isn’t your typical start-up.
Slashing through the heart of the Trinity defense, Derryfield junior Chad Kelsey took a pass from freshman teammate Ben Calegari and, in one motion, fired a shot into the lower lefthand corner of the net to capture a 7-6 overtime win on Thursday, April 26.
For the Cougars, the play – which came after Trinity scored with three seconds left in regulation to force overtime – and the win, their first, may prove invaluable.
Playing as a varsity squad for the first time after three years as a dominant club team, Derryfield needed a confidence boost after laboring through one of the toughest stretches to open a Division III schedule.
Three losses by a combined score of 43-4 to Portsmouth, Laconia and Hollis-Brookline, all considered contenders for the league crown, did little to help morale.
“It was sort of a shell-shock,” said senior tri-captain Camden McKenna, a Bedford native.
Yet, as it enters a home date with Milford on Wednesday, May 2, at 1-4, Derryfield, which was actually an NHIAA-sanctioned team for several years until 2003, has shown increased poise and precision and better execution.
It’s also starting to believe its decision to move from club, where it went 30-6 in three seasons, to varsity was a good one, despite carrying as many as 12 freshmen and sophomores on its 22-man roster.
“The guys really felt that other than trying to go undefeated, there was not much of an incentive to play there (in club), so we thought if the team was ever to get back going again, now was the right time to get back in the league,” said Derryfield coach Chris Hettler, in his fifth year.
“The reason we left (the NHIAA originally) is not because of the talent – we’ve always had good kids in the school, and that’s why we did so well in club,” he continued. “But we never had the numbers.”
A growing middle-school program has helped change that; the team has ballooned from 16 players last season.
Freshman contributors like Bedford’s James Donovan at attack; midfielders Allen Khayat and Brendan Dobbin, both of Bedford; and Calegari, Chris Coppinger and Ryan Clauson have combined well with the 10 returnees from last year’s squad.
That has made the roles filled by upperclassmen – Bedford’s Luke Jorgenson and Greg Baldassarre, juniors Nick Bryan, who had four goals against Trinity, and goalie and tri-captain Neil Donnelly, who made 18 saves – that much more important.
Though the Cougars were not prepared for the size and speed of several of their opponents, the mentality it takes to be a varsity team was always there.
“I don’t think we have that club attitude,” said McKenna, a four-year member of the team.
“In club, he (Hettler) definitely pushed us like a varsity team, and he treated us like a varsity team. But he’s more serious about it now because he wants to see the team get better for the future. This is really our first year, so we have the right foundation.”
Also looking to make contributions to this year’s run are sophomore midfielder Mack Fleming, junior defenseman Matt Falkenham and Bedford’s Rex Rodanas, Zach Silversmith, Tony Salerni, Zach Morgan and Dustin Kahn.