LONDONDERRY — The Londonderry boys created a traffic jam at the offensive end in a 6-0 home turf victory over Manchester Memorial Friday afternoon. A seemingly endless string of one-touch passes moved the ball back and forth across the pitch, disorganizing the Crusaders defense.

And then the Lancers took charge; sending so many players to the box the goal face resembled a Labor Day weekend traffic snarl at the Hampton toll booths.

Nate Gaw, Dylan Holland and Alex Hall each scored twice for the Lancers. All three had chances for hat tricks snatched away by Memorial keeper Gary Archaubault.

The talented goalie made 14 saves. The senior needed instinctive reactions while making saves from point-blank range and displayed acrobatic and aerial moves on others. He also played aggressively, coming out away from the net to intercept passes aimed for breakaway opportunities.

“We were outplayed by a better team today,” said Memorial coach Chris Florek after his 0-3 team watched the Lancers improve to 2-0. “(Londonderry) is good year after year and they took it to us in all facets of the game today.”

Londonderry's possession-oriented style developed one scoring opportunity after another, be it through passes from midfield, diagonal strikes from the wings or centering passes from the corners.

Every goal was scored within five yards of the net, giving even Archaubault little chance of a miracle save.

“We've picked up right where we left off last year,” said Holland, a senior forward who lost a hat-trick bid when the Crusaders keeper tipped his bending corner kick serve over the crossbar.

Employing a similar playing style, Londonderry finished runner-up to Manchester Central in last fall's title game.

“We are working hard to move the ball around and work our way back to the title game,” said Holland.

After netting his first two varsity goals, Gaw, Londonderry's lone freshman, then contributed three assists.

“I'm a young guy playing with a bunch of seniors. I'm not totally used to playing this style. You can only take one or two touches and you have to get rid of the ball. You've got to be patient and not force anything,” said Maw. “It's lots of fun.”

Andrew Beliveau, Kenny Desmarais, Dominic Galluzzo and Andrew Mitchell also contributed assists for Londonderry.

Passes from Memorial midfielder Julio Diaz set up potential scoring strikes for Matt Cortic and Manny Galvez but defender Tom Beedham turned them away. Londonderry keeper Bobby Krause made a nice save of Johnathan Demers shot.

“We're inexperienced. Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take some time before we can compete with these guys, but we're working on it,” said Florek, a longtime Central assistant in his first season at Memorial.

AT LONDONDERRY
Londonderry 6, Manchester Memorial 0
Memorial (0-3) 0 - 0 — 0
Londonderry (2-0) 3 - 3 — 6
Goals: L - Nate Gaw (Andrew Beliveau) 14:40; L - Gaw (Kenny Desmarais) 21:05; L - Alex Hall (Dominic Galluzzo, Law) 37:35; L - Dylan Holland (Andrew Mitchell) 43:31; L - Holland (Gaw) 51:39: L - Hall (Gaw) 67:30
Saves: M - Gary Archaubault 14; L - Bobby Krause 4, Jeff Baroody 1