Nashua South girls lacrosse continues scoring run in win over Concord (video)

NASHUA - Throughout the early part of the season, the Nashua High School South girls lacrosse team has tried to improve running its offensive sets.

It hasn't always gone the way the players and coaches would like, but fortunately for the Panthers, they've found other ways to generate offense.

Against Concord on Thursday, South struggled to maintain possession, but was successful in turning the Crimson Tide over with its ride, as the Panthers jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 13-5 win.

Seven players scored for South (5-0), led by Ella Benzekri, who had three goal and two assists, and Maddy Matylewski, who also scored three goals. Kaitlyn West added two goals and two assists and Maren Lowell also scored twice.

"It’s a selfless team," South coach Ciki McIntire said. "They’re not just looking to pad their own stats, which is awesome. Of all of our goals, we have more than 50 percent that have assists. They just need more reps together and trust each other, and running through and trusting the offense."

Karina O'Donnell also had a goal and an assist for South while Morgan Uzdanovich and Bella Walsh had a goal apiece. Keira Walsh had three saves and Bailey Carroll, Vanessa Reeder and Soleil Dubois were strong defensively, as the Panthers held the Crimson Tide (1-3) to just one goal in the first half.

A big reason for that was South's ability to force turnovers in the middle of the field. Although the Panthers had more miscues than the Tide (20-18 turnovers), South was able to capitalize by turning Concord's into transition goals.

"It’s tough, especially because they’re doing great things on defense," Concord coach Ashley Durepo said. "I want them to know the defense is working and to continue to trust it. We definitely have talked a lot about clears and the back pass and swing and what to do.

"I think sometimes some of our inexperience, or its a bit of a panic thing, we kind of look for Mary (Martinson) and pass to her even when she’s covered. We’ve got trust our skills, trust the space."

Martinson finished with four goals for Concord (1-3) and Sofia Payne had a goal and an assist. The Crimson Tide started the game by winning the draw and getting a good look right away, but the first shot of the game went off the post.

Concord got another opportunity, but the ball went just over the net and South was the first one to it. The Panthers tried to get into their offense, turned the ball over, but got it right back and got a goal from Benzekri to take a 1-0 lead with 21:23 left in the first half.

South's second goal looked similar, as the Panthers won the draw, turned the ball over and then got it right back, leading to a goal by Matylewski. The first seven goals of the game for South came after a Concord turnover.

"We have really good athletes and we have really good understanding, it’s just executing under pressure," McIntire said. "They started pressuring us and then we got a little frenzied. Then we made bad passes and bad decisions. It’s just running through our offense and correcting some of the details."

Martinson got Concord on the board with 2:29 left in the half, but South took a 9-1 lead into halftime, and got goals from Benzekri and Matylewski just 14 seconds apart to open the second half.

The teams will take another crack at it on Friday, as South travels to Concord for a 4 p.m. start.

"It was good for us to see what was happening, be able to coach against it and sort of figure some of that out," Durepo said. "I think the goal is to trust the process and look for those smaller wins. Things like limiting turnovers, which we didn’t necessarily do (Thursday), starting to put things together. Look for those small victories and know we’re building. It’s a long season, we’ve got a lot of games left. We’re definitely on our way."