Big day on offense lifts Nashua South girls lacrosse to win over Nashua North (video)

NASHUA - The Nashua High School South girls lacrosse team wasn't able to get possession for the first few minutes of Thursday's game against Nashua North.

But once the Panthers got it, they really didn't want to give it up.

South scored the game's first four goals in a six-minute stretch and tacked on a four more late in the first half and rolled to a 16-3 win over the Titans at Stellos Stadium.

It all added up to an 11-2 lead for the Panthers at halftime, as South won 9 of 14 draws in the first 25 minutes and limited the Titans to just a handful of shots. North struggled against South's ride, as many of the Titans' first-half turnovers came before they could cross midfield.

"Right off the draw, North came down firing, which I knew they would," South coach Ciki McIntire said. "I think our defense made that stand and that statement that this is not going to happen. It was a good way to just come right out and put in a couple of goals to get rolling. I think the beginning of the game was a lot of jitters."

Kirsten McIntire led South (7-3) with four goals and three assists while Liz Harrington also had four goals and Olivia Johnson added three goals and an assist. Michelle Ramirez scored twice and Sarah Signorello, Soleil Dubois and Kyle Dawe chipped in with a goal apiece while Rileigh Bunton made five saves.

North (4-6) saw its four-game win streak snapped with the loss, getting two goals and an assist from Kaylee Hubbard and another goal from Campbell Haller. Goalie Samantha Canto made six saves for the Titans.

"I think we had a tough time with transition," North co-coach Heather McKillop said. "We had a few good defensive plays, but then couldn’t transition the ball cleanly up the field. Our attack was having a tough time finding the back of the net. We could have had a better shot selection at times. I think the girls fought until the end but it wasn’t our best day of lacrosse."

Johnson started the scoring on South's first offensive possession, and then gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead off a free position with 17:05 left in the first half. Back-to-back goals by Kirsten McIntire and Harrington just 29 seconds apart made it 4-0 and North took a timeout with 15:02 remaining.

While Hubbard was able to get North on the board, her goal came in between goals by Signorello and Harrington - both assisted by Kirsten McIntire - as South went up 6-1.

"I think the fact that we have a group of unselfish players is awesome," Ciki McIntire said. "So many goals had assists, which is so nice. Our upperclassmen do a great job of looking to feed the underclassmen to get them some goals. That’s exciting for them."

South added five more goals in the final eight minutes of the half, including Dawe's goal with 9.5 seconds remaining.

Both teams return to action on Monday, as South hosts Dover at 4 p.m. and North heads to Merrimack for a 4:30 p.m. start.