Salyards' three goals not enough to save St. Thomas Aquinas from getting top-four seed

DOVER - St. Thomas Aquinas High School boys lacrosse goalie Eli Allaire said Tuesday's 8-6 Division II loss to Windham showed the team one thing.

"This loss really showed us that it's time we step it up and prove that we're the best team in the state and not just have the mentality we are," Allaire said.

The Saints were marching entering Tuesday's home showdown with Windham, but St. Thomas Aquinas saw its seven-game win streak come to an end.

The Jaguars, after a 6-6 tie midway through the fourth, scored two goals, one being an empty-netter with 3 seconds left, to hold off the Saints.

Here's what was on the line in showdown

Windham improved to 13-3 and is likely to be the No. 4 seed. Conversely, the Saints, who end the regular season Friday at Souhegan, are now 11-4 and will likely be the No. 6 seed.

"We definitely saw this like a playoff game," Allaire said. "We know it was a big game ... but I think that sixth seed that we're going to be in now is really going to drive us to push harder in the playoffs."

"We obviously knew whoever won was getting the No. 4 seed," St. Thomas head coach Scott Singer said. "I just think we had some guys who weren't really focused and ready to play today."

"We have a lot of potential to win," St. Thomas' George Dannecker said. "But not everyone showed up ... we have to fine-tune our weapons to get to where we want to be."

Windham slows St. Thomas offense

St. Thomas had scored at least 13 goals in six of its last seven wins, but only mustered one goal through the first two quarters against Windham, and trailed 3-1 at the break.

The Saints had a much better performance in the second half. Trent Salyards scored two of his three second-half goals in the first seven minutes of the third quarter to tie the game at 3.

However, each time the Saints scored the game-tying goal and attempted to take control of the momentum rope, Windham answered.

The Jaguars scored two minutes after Salyards' second goal and added one more roughly 30 seconds before the end of the third for a 5-3 lead. STA's Aidan Morrison scored 33 seconds into the fourth to pull the Saints within one, but Windham answered 20 seconds later.

Salyards' third goal came at 9:27 and two minutes later, Luke Daly tied the game again for St. Thomas. The game being tied for the next three or so minutes until Windham scored the go-ahead with 4:40 and held the advantage until the horn blew.

"We relied on (Salyards) to score a lot of goals," Singer said of the second half. "He was rocking and having his best game of the season. We just kept giving it to the hot hand."

"More shots on net, to be honest," Allaire said of the second half. "We started to duck our shoulder. We have to get more gritty. We started to do that more in the second half; we really picked it up."

Ryan Resch also scored for the Saints.

Saints turning to a key adjective as postseason approaches

There was a common word that popped up following Tuesday's game that St. Thomas identified as a key area heading into the tournament.

"We've got to continue to get better and find a way to get grittier," Singer said.

Allaire also used the word 'gritty."

"More grittiness, getting groundballs, getting down and dirty," he said. "We're a private school, so people have the mentality that we're too good for everyone and we're too clean. We've got to get down and dirty and just show them who St. Thomas really is, be a family and work together."

"As a team, we need to buckle it up and figure it out," Dannecker said. "We didn't play our best and we still held it to a close game. We did the same against Portsmouth and Timberlane."

Singer added that he'd like for the team to find its stride, and for 'everyone do what they're capable of doing."

"I felt like every game we've had that we haven't come out on the winning side, it very could've easily been flipped," Singer said. "We've just got to, in my opinion, get out of our own way. Hopefully we can coach the boys up. It starts with us coaches getting the boys ready. Hopefully, we'll play to the level we think we're capable of."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: St. Thomas Aquinas boys lacrosse falls to Windham in key D2 game