Derryfield boys lacrosse hangs on for win against Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH – There haven’t been many times throughout the championship rivalry between the the Derryfield School and Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse teams in which one team was in total control throughout, but that’s the position the Cougars were in heading into the fourth quarter on Wednesday night.

That was until the defending Division II champion Clippers made it interesting in a matchup of teams that have met in the past three championship games.

After jumping out to a 7-1 cushion, Derryfield held off a fierce fourth-quarter surge by the Clippers to hang onto a 7-6 victory on Tom Daubney Field.

“That was a tough one to see it come down to the wire like that and I’m glad we pulled it out,” Derryfield senior RJ Proulx said. “In those types of games, you have to give it everything you have. I want to lie down and take a nap right now because I left literally everything I had out there.”

The game was the first meeting since last June when Portsmouth won its third Division II championship in four years with a 13-9 win over Derryfield. Portsmouth also beat Derryifield for the 2022 crown before the Cougars responded with a win over the Clippers in 2023.

“We just hung on to survive. We had just enough legs at the end there, barely,” Derryfield coach Chris Hettler said. “I’m really proud. This is a very young team with a lot of sophomores and a lot of freshmen out there and they stepped up in big roles (Wednesday).”

Derryfield (4-0, No. 5 in the MerchSquared.com/NHHSSports Coaches Poll) held Portsmouth (3-2, No. 6) scoreless for over 32 minutes before Henry Purcell beat Derryfield goalie Liam England (13 saves) late in the third quarter to close the deficit to 7-2 entering the fourth.

Reilly Collins spearheaded Portsmouth’s comeback in the fourth by scoring three goals as his goal with 4:18 remaining was followed by a Sam Biddle tally. Collins lasered a goal off an assist from Trevor Sifferlen with 31 seconds left to bring Portsmouth within 7-6.

“I was proud of the way they continued on,” Portsmouth coach Chad Vischer said. “We’re young and in the first half we made a lot of young mistakes. I think they outcoached us early and I don’t know if we matured, but we played more aggressively and with more intent. We went with a focus and we went after it.”

Derryfield sophomore Jackson Hatfield won the game’s final faceoff that senior Brady Doldo scooped up and the Cougars killed the remaining time to secure the win.

“Every year in the regular season we’ve lost to Portsmouth, so it feels great this year,” Doldo said. “I knew they were going to fight back and I knew we had to keep working hard. We did and we pulled through.”

Led by the draw play of Hatfield and Dylan Clyne, the Cougars took control to break a 1-1 tie in the second, when Doldo gave them the lead and Hatfield stole the ball and raced from midfield to beat Portsmouth goalie Kai Paterson (11 saves). Hatflied added another goal to send Derryfield into halftime with a 4-1 lead.

Emerson Stover, Proulx and Dom Cercone all scored in the second quarter to give Derryfield a 7-1 cushion.

“We were patient and looking for good opportunities,” Hettler said. “We wanted to make sure they couldn’t run and get into transition, so we did everything we could to limit that transition. For three quarters, it worked pretty well.”