It was set up perfectly. Two Manchester rivals in the finals, with all kinds of inter-connectiing stories, the best being the coach of one team (Memorial’s Mike Fitzpatrick) trying to defend the spectacular long range shooting of his son (Trinity’s Cormac Fitzpatrick).

A standing room only crowd of 2,200 filled the recently renovated Lundholm Gymnasium at the University of New Hampshire and, for two hours at least, it seemed like the perfect venue.

Would some have preferred the game be played in a less than half-filled Whitemore Center, the hockey rink across the streak?   How about the Verizon Wireless Arena, with maybe 6,000 empty seats?

No, there is nothing wrong with Lundholm for the Class L finals, outside of some parking issues Saturday caused by multiple events at UNH.

What was too bad Saturday was the game itself. Memorial, in its first Class L final in 27 years, never looked comfortable. Trinity was too long and too athletic for the Crusaders, holding them to 25 points, the fewest any team has scored in a Class L final in 60 years.

It was kind of sad to watch some Memorial student supporters, and they were out in force, leaving the gym before the game was over.  The team deserved their support to the end.

But it was tough to watch, Memorial managing just seven field goals for the game on 47 field goal attempts. Give Trinity and coach Dave Keefe credit. After back-to-back finals losses they had the game plan to make sure it didn’t happen again.

They also had the best player in the state, Jordan Laguerre.