Jackson overcame her nerves to help Portsmouth girls lacrosse capture another D2 title

Grace Jackson played in a championship game to end all four years of her Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse career.

But that didn't keep the senior goalie from feeling a bit of nerves when last week's Division II championship game against Winnacunnet got underway.

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"I still get nervous before games," Jackson said. "I feel it in my legs. I get a little quaky. I guess that’s humbling in a way. We’re always the team to beat. It feels really good, but at the same time I get nervous, which makes it feel more real to me. I feel like the first five minutes, getting one or two saves under my belt, that kind of calms me down."

There was just one problem for Jackson in the first half - she didn't have any saves.

Despite winning six of eight draws in the first half, Winnacunnet turned the ball over eight times and had just five shots. Only four of those shots were on goal and all four found the back of the net, as the Warriors led for most of the half.

The only thing that kept Winnacunnet from taking a lead into the break was a goal just before the buzzer by Portsmouth's Julia Roelofs that made it a 4-4 game.

But in the second half, Jackson came up big, making five saves and helping No. 1 Portsmouth limit the third-seeded Warriors to just one goal in the second half of a 10-5 win.

"I think for me it was a matter of tracking," Jackson said. "(Keelyn McNamara) and (Brooke McErlain) I’ve watched their videos and I know where they’re shooting. For me, that made it easier to track their shots. Mentally, I had to pep myself up for that at halftime and stay calm and focused. Knowing that the defense in front of me, they’re awesome, it makes my job so much easier when I have them in front of me."

In a way, Portsmouth coach Mary Squire felt that the goal by Roelofs just before the half helped calm everyone down.

"That was huge, and by a freshman," the coach said. "It stunned everybody and I think from that point forward, the girls knew we were going to do this. We could do it.

"(Jackson) had four or five huge saves against some of their better shooters. She was tracking them and those were huge, key saves for us, and we really built off that."

Jackson's biggest stretch came after the Clippers had taken an 8-5 lead. The Warriors put three straight shots on goal, including a free position by McErlain, and Jackson rejected each attempt.

On the final one, Winnacunnet's Brenna Bushe had a chance to get the ground ball in front of an open net, but couldn't control it and Jackson scooped it up to start a breakout the other way.

"It’s a really great feeling knowing that I probably had five or six saves total, and that’s so important when it’s a tight game like this," she said. "I think my energy, from tracking the ball, that feeds into our defense, which feeds into our offense, which makes us play so much better."

For Jackson and the Clippers, it was the third straight title and the perfect way to wrapup a high school career.

"I’m so proud of my teammates," she said. "I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end senior year. My sophomore year, that was a big one, since we had lost the year before. This one has a whole different meaning to me, since it’s my last game."