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Questionable penalty kick derails Lancers

Tuesday, November, 06 By Ryan Lambert
Staff writer

Andrew Pescia looked at the ball sitting just 12 yards away from him in the 38th minute of the Class L state final. He was on the verge of making the most important play of his career.

Lined up opposite him was Brad Hilton, Merrimack's star midfielder.

"I wanted to push him to a certain side by cheating over to one," said Pescia, the senior who emerged as Londonderry's go-to keeper late in the season. "That's where he went and I knocked it down, (then he got the rebound and) I knocked it down again."

He did not, however, knock down the third try, a shot to the side of the net from Chris Ywoskus that lifted Merrimack to its first-ever New Hampshire boys soccer championship, 1-0. The call that led to the free kick, and ultimately the goal, was dubious at best.

"They both went for the ball and the kid just tripped over the ball," explained Pescia, who must have had a bird's-eye view from a few feet away. "It was pretty clean. You can't really do anything about it."

The fact that the lone goal was decided on a penalty kick was exacerbated when one Merrimack defender took down Robbie McLarney in his own box a few minutes later, and another handled the ball inside the box shortly afterwards.

Other than the one slip-up, which was hardly his fault, Pescia was a rock in front of goal for the fourth-seeded Lancers, while 120 yards away, Kevin Pelsinski was just slightly better. It was both teams' offenses that struggled mightily.

Neither team could muster a composed attack for much of the first hour of the game, with both trying in vain to funnel everything through the middle of the field. But late in the second half, down 1-0, Londonderry began to spread the ball to the wings and create real pressure at the goal. In all, Londonderry tried six of its nine shots in the final 15 minutes of the game.

"This field is huge," said assistant coach Derek Dane, who was filling in for Shawn Diaz, who was forced to sit the game out because Londonderry received its 10th yellow card in the previous game. "It's huge. If you stop and look at it, do you see that white line? That's the out of bounds for football.

"On our school field, this other white line is out of bounds. On this field, the yellow line is out of bounds, so there's an extra 10 yards on the side of the field. If you're not accustomed to it, it takes a little while to adjust, and we had to adjust to it."

The adjustment, in the end, was too little, too late for Londonderry, which handled the loss with a remarkable amount of composure.

"This is my first time in the postseason, and it was awesome," said Pescia. "I loved every second of it. The close games, like against (undefeated top seed) Pinkerton last week, where it came down to the last six minutes of the game, and Billy (Holland) knocked one in for us and then Steve Carroll scored in overtime | it was an unbelievable experience."

End of the line for electrifying duo

Much of the Londonderry attack came from the spell-binding abilities of two players: forward Billy Holland and midfielder Robbie McLarney.

Both had an offensive flair and speed that was unmatched in the championship game and, though the two captains worked together in dynamic fashion, neither found the back of the net.

The behind-the-back, mid-air heel flick from Holland ahead to his Rutgers-bound classmate early on in the contest drew a delighted "Oh!" from the crowd and set the tone for what was an incredible offensive display from the pair.

"I'm going to miss those guys because they bring a certain amount of quality to the game," said Dane. "The game is supposed to be entertainment and they make it entertaining. They're very fun to watch."