White River Junction
The counterpoint was made Friday night at Hartford High, where the second-seeded Hurricanes and third-seeded Vergennes staged a contest bursting with excitement and offense, the hosts rallying for a 13-9 victory that propelled them into Tuesday’s division championship against top-seeded Stratton Mountain at Burlington High.
“This is a great thing; jeepers creepers!” said eighth-year coach Bill Elberty, whose program entered the season 18-37 during its last four seasons in Division II. “Our kids have never had this experience before. It’s all brand new.”
Hartford’s Nick Dorain scored four goals and posted a natural hat trick during the fourth quarter’s first four minutes. The first of the junior attackman’s three consecutive tallies broke an 8-8 tie after three quarters, the second strike proved to be the game winner and the third occurred on a beautiful roll dodge from behind the Commodores’ net and gave Hartford an 11-9 lead.
Goaltender Chris Dorain, Nick’s twin brother and a player who’s manned the position fewer than three months, made 11 saves and withstood an opening barrage during which Vergennes scored on four of its first six shots and built leads of 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 before halftime.
“We were too tight and not ready to play,” Nick Dorain said. “We were over-prepared for a new experience but once the first quarter ended, we relaxed and got back into our groove.
“Chris is a student of the game and he’ll play anywhere you want him to play. He’s stepped up to the challenge of being a goalie and he’s owned it.”
Freshman midfielder Reece Thompson had a goal and three assists and helped Hartford win 14-of-26 faceoffs. Nate Lemieux had a goal and three assists, the last coming on a perfectly-executed give-and-go with Ben Rouillard, who scored twice. Senior attackman Walkker Judd scored twice and had an assist and Will Mayfield had two goals and an assist.
Andrew Dailey also scored for Hartford (10-5), which has made two previous trips to a state title game, losing the Division II championship contest in 2004 and 2006. The Hurricanes improved to 3-2 in division semifinal clashes and to 10-16 in postseason games overall.
Vergennes (9-7) featured talented attackman Tyler Crowningshield, who’s headed to play at Castleton State next season. The senior had four goals, including one on a behind-the-back shot, but none during the fourth quarter, when his team was outscored, 5-1. The Commodores had eight substitutes while Hartford dressed more than enough players for two whole squads.
“That was definitely a factor but so was the (scoring) depth of our team,” Nick Dorain said. “We have a whole team that can make things happen.”
You want a player who will bull his way to the net and shrug aside bodychecks and stick whacks? Judd is your man. How about a lefty with a sidearm cannon? Taylor answers that description.
Rouillard and Lemieux are hockey teammates who have an innate sense of what the other will do and Mayfield has scored three times in the last two games. Midfielder Kyle Prior is speedy and described as a “ground ball maven” by his coach and defenseman Matt Lucke is drawing college interest for his size and skill.
“Everything’s opening up and it’s because we play a unified, team-oriented game,” Elberty said. “We’ve had more assists this season than we did the previous seven and we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores out there.”
Hartford trailed, 5-2, just 25 seconds into the second quarter but led, 6-5, at intermission. That advantage grew to 8-5 with four minutes remaining in the third quarter but Vergennes struck for three consecutive goals and an 8-8 deadlock entering the final frame. The fourth quarter, however, was all Hartford, as darkness fell and the stadium lights glowed and a crowd of roughly 400 cheered and stomped in a scene more reminiscent of Hurricanes football.
“There are schools like Sharon and Windsor and Killington that will look at us and what we’ve been able to do and they’ll think they can compete in lacrosse now,” said Elberty, whose squad was 3-11 last spring.
Said Nick Dorain: “A lot of us were bummed at the beginning of the season because we thought we sucked if we were in Division III. But it’s a good place for young programs and ones that are building their talent. If you have a bunch of losses, it demolishes confidence in young players. This is fine for us.”
Notes: Nick Dorain said he and his brother got the lacrosse bug from their father, Doug, who played at Kimball Union Academy and Springfield (Mass.) College. The Wilder residents built themselves a goal out of 2×4 lumber but wound up destroying it because they shot at it so much. … The Hurricanes all rushed to touch Elberty’s shaved head after the game for continued good luck. … A random ball, likely left over from warmups, was discovered inside the Vergennes net with five minutes remaining by Commodores goaltender Broc Clark. He looked uncertain what to do with the rubber, before tossing it out of bounds. … Hartford defenseman Jason Beilecki and Crowningshield shared drinks from the same Commodores water bottle during a fourth-quarter break. … Thompson ripped in an apparent goal 19 seconds before halftime but Elberty had just been granted a time out and the tally was waved off. … Vergennes is a city of around 2,500 roughly halfway between Middlebury and Burlington… The Commodores are 2-9 in the postseason since their 2008 debut and have never reached a state semifinal. … Stratton Mountain (11-3) was granted a bye into the semifinals, where it beat Mount Abraham.