Londonderry's Grace Holland (17) can only watch as Nashua South's Olivia Johnson fires a shot early in the Lancers' 19-16 win Tuesday at Stellos Stadium. Johnson scored, one of her six goals on the day.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – This was to be a test for the Nashua High School South girls lacrosse team.

But 10 minutes into their game with Londonderry at Stellos Stadium on Tuesday, the Panthers were probably wondering if there was going to be a makeup exam.

Ah, but things can change quickly in the game of lacrosse, and South, down 8-1 at one point, rallied to make it a game before eventually falling 19-16 to the Lancers.

“I’m so proud of them for digging deep, not worrying about the score, and taking care of what they needed to do out there,” Panthers coach Ciki McIntire said. “Each team is going to go on runs, it’s just how you react to it.”

Reacting really well to it, eventually, were Panthers Olivia Johnson and Ella Benzekri, each with six goals. South put together six unanswered to close to within 8-7 before the Lancers (6-3) went into the break up 10-8.

“We went the momentum go for a little bit,” Lancers coach Kelly Gordon said. “We had a conversation during the timeout and said ‘We know the team we can be, we saw it, we also know how it feels to let in five unanswered goals, and we need to figure it out.

“We had a breakdown in communication, but once we started to bring it back, we picked it back up.”

Grace Holland led the Lancers with four goals while Kiara Edmunds and Jenna Stowell, who was a key on draw controls, had three each. Caroline Leone and Abby Whitley each had a pair.

South could not get the equalizer, closing to 13-12 with 14:28 remaining in the game on a Johnson goal off a pretty feed from Kaitlyn West, one of her six assists to go with two goals and four ground ball pickups. But the Lancers got a goal by Holland 23 seconds later, went on a 4-1 run and led 17-13 with 7:10 to play.

The Panthers just couldn’t get over that hump. Stowell was tough on draws, and as Gordon said, “It’s a game of possession.”

But, as McIntire said of her players, “They’re fighters. We don’t have that huge bench, we’re juggling people around, and they do whatever we ask of them.”

South, now 5-2, also got single goals from Kylie Dawe and Isabella Walsh. Soleil Dubois had three assists, six ground balls and five big draw controls. Maya Rioux added an assist while Panthers goalie Audrey Mullaney was big with 12 saves, most of them in the second half.

Despite the loss, this was what McIntire was hoping for – a challenge that the Panthers had at least a chance to meet.

“We want a competitive game like this,” McIntire said. “We either have blown out teams or gotten blown out. So I’ll take a game like that any day, it’s only going to make them better.”

Well, they’ll get another one just like it in another day, as the two teams are set for a rematch in Londonderry thanks to the different home-and-home scheduling this spring.

As Gordon said, both teams would have a lot to go over in practice today. But that’s fine with McIntire.

“They’re ready for the rematch on Thursday,” she said with a grin. “This was really good.”