Portsmouth boys lacrosse grinds out win over Merrimack (video)

MERRIMACK - If there was ever a game for the Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse team to win by any means necessary, it was Saturday against Merrimack.

On one of the hottest afternoons of the year, on an unfamiliar grass field, against a physical team, with six regulars missing, including four who were feeling side effects from a COVID-19 vaccine, the Clippers just needed to get the job done and they did.

Portsmouth kept Merrimack at a distance all afternoon and pulled away in the fourth quarter for an 8-2 win over the Tomahawks, despite being in some difficult situations due to missing personel.

"We were down six contributors," Portsmouth coach Chad Vischer said. "I had a manup where I had five guys on. I said ‘manup, you’re on’ and two of those guys are at home. That’s a problem. I didn’t have plays. We had guys out there who hadn’t been out there.

"What it became was a kind of very selfish offense, it was not pretty, but that’s what we had to do. We had guys who play midfield playing attack. I had (Moses Brown), who is our LSM, playing short stick because he played it in youth."

Zach Amend stepped up on offense for the Clippers (12-0, No. 5 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll), scoring four goals and dishing out an assist, while Houston Heidinger had a goal and an assist and Mike Durkin, Dan Bottrill and Owen Ingwersen also scored.

Dom Maldari added an assist and Nate Amend made seven saves, keeping Merrimack (4-8) off the scoreboard for almost three full quarters.

The Tomahawks got goals from Connor Lanigan and Kyle Crampton while Alex Griffin made six saves. Merrimack trailed 3-0 at halftime and felt like it was right there, but the Tomahawks struggled to execute on the offensive end.

"Our possessions were not plentiful," Merrimack coach Brian Miller said. "We had trouble clearing and trouble on the groundballs, and at this point in the season, those things should be more clear. They shouldn’t be problems, especially for a varsity lacrosse team. We didn’t test them enough, but part of that is because we didn’t have possession enough."

Miller felt the Tomahawks did a great job defensively, led by Sean Morrilly, Dylan Sadowski and Jake Trahan.

"At times, we played outstanding defense," the coach said. "We have some great senior leaders back there who are working hard and played very well on defense. Our slides are there. The team defense aspect has been great this year, but you can only play defense for so long before things start to break down. Even the best teams see mental errors after a while. They were patient and made us pay for mistakes on groundballs and clears."

Merrimack turned the ball over 22 times while taking just 18 shots, and in the third quarter, the Tomahawks were unable to set up anything on offense until after Zach Amend had scored twice to extend the lead to 5-0.

Zach Amend got the scoring started in the first quarter, after Maldari corralled a high rebound off the crossbar and found Amend in position for a goal with 7:08 left in the first frame. Bottrill and Durkin each added a goal in the final 3:03 of the quarter to make it a 3-0 lead for Portsmouth.

But that's where it would stand going into halftime, as Merrimack's defense stepped up and kept the Clippers off the scoreboard.

"They play hard and play physical," Vischer said. "We’re just not accustomed to that. They ate a lot of shots. They took a lot of shots into their bodies."

After extending the lead in the thrid quarter, Portsmouth pulled away in the fourth, getting back-to-back goals from Zach Amend and Ingwersen just 32 seconds apart. On the second goal, Nate Amend made a point-blank save on Merrimack's Matthew Todd and got the ball out quickly to start the breakout.

"I was happy with how we gritted it out," Vischer said. "This was the epitome of grit."