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HUDSON N.H. — As the Alvrine Bronco marching band played on as its players celebrated a playoff berth for the first time since 2000, the Timberlane Owls across the field huddled together for the final time this season as Timberlane fell to Alvrine 32-7.

BEDFORD, N.H. — Timberlane's Emily Cannon was a little frustrated with herself for failing to produce any offense in regulation of the Class L title game against Pinkerton.

BEDFORD, N.H. — Timberlane's Emily Cannon was a little frustrated with herself for failing to produce any offense in regulation of the Class L title game against Pinkerton.

BEDFORD, N.H. — Timberlane's Emily Cannon was a little frustrated with herself for failing to produce any offense in regulation of the Class L title game against Pinkerton.

BEDFORD, N.H. — Timberlane's Emily Cannon was a little frustrated with herself for failing to produce any offense in regulation of the Class L title game against Pinkerton.

PLAISTOW, N.H. —- Timberlane's defense started slowly before stiffening up and its offense rolled for four quarters in a 47-20 trouncing of winless Spaulding (0-9).

The victory lifted the Owls to 4-3 in Division 2 (4-5 overall) and sets up a showdown at Alvirne next Friday, the winner of which will advance to the Division 2 playoffs.

No. 5 Pinkerton blanked Timberlane, 4-0, and advanced to Saturday's quarterfinal round (at 3 p.m.) vs. the winner of No. 13 Spaulding and No. 4  Manchester Central.  The highest seed will host the next round game.

With Conor Dube doing the serving, No. 2 seed Timberlane scored the first seven points of the match on its way to the sweep of Londonderry.
Junior Max LaRoche was the surprise big gun for the Owls with 11 kills and two blocks and Joe Morin chipped in with two kills and a block in a key five-point streak in the second game when Londonderry was threatening to tie up the match.
“Max was only JV last year, and we weren’t sure what to expect, but we stuck him in the middle and he’s been fantastic,” said Timberlane coach John Dube. “He’s been much better than we expected.”
Senior Terry Matatall finished with 10 kills but, like a couple of his teammates, wasn’t quite as effective as usual. That may have been a good thing, however, according to their coach.
And, said Matatall, “I feel we know what to expect having been in the finals last year. I’m confident we can beat them. We’ve gotten a lot better since the last time we played them.”
For Londonderry, which made several nice runs in the match, Matt Hersey had eight kills to lead the front line. The Lancers finished 12-6, which was a nice turnaround from 2008 (6-11).
“We played pretty well, but it was too hard to come back from that early deficit,” said Londonderry coach David Starin.

Undefeated Timberlane survived despite Manchester Memorial tying the game with 6 seconds left yesterday.

The Owls, however, regrouped  in overtime when Nikki Rothwell drew a defender, then dropped off a pass to Emily Cannon who scored from midcircle with 6:36 left in OT to give No. 1 Timberlane a 2-1 victory over No. 8 Memorial in Class L quarterfinal action.  

With nothing less than a trip to the finals being acceptable, Timberlane's boys volleyball team had no trouble knocking Souhegan from the Division 1 playoffs with a 3-0 quarterfinal victory. Terry Matatall (10 kills and 2 blocks) was his usual force, and outside hitters Tim Anderson and Matt Dionne kicked off a first-game 10-point run to quickly lock down the victory. Now at 15-2, the second seed Owls will face No. 3 Londonderry Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Pinkerton Academy in the semifinals.