Portsmouth boys lacrosse returns to D2 title game with complete win over Winnacunnet

BEDFORD - There were a lot of question marks on the offensive side of the ball this season for the Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse team and it wasn't in a good way.

Now, with just one game left in the season, a lot of those questions for the Clippers look like they've been answered.

Sixth-seeded Portsmouth got goals from six players, including five from sophomore Henry Purcell, and the defense did the rest as the Clippers stormed past No. 2 Winnacunnet with an 11-2 win Thursday in the Division II semifinals at Bedford High School.

This will be the fifth title-game appearance in a row, and the seventh in the last eight seasons, for Portsmouth, which will face No. 1 Derryfield at 3 p.m. Saturday at Bedford. The two teams have played each other in the last four D2 championship games.

"We’ve been working hard in moving the ball and having confidence," Portsmouth coach Chad Vischer said. "For our underclassmen to be the majority of the goal scorers … we’ve worked a lot of time with those guys."

Purcell (one assist) scored the first two goals of the game in the opening four minutes to help the Clippers (15-5) take a 3-0 lead. Freshman Trevor Sifferien added two goals while senior Reilly Collins, sophomore Gus Baker and sophomore Cortland Barr had a goal and an assist apiece.

Senior Sawyer Bouvier also had a goal and senior goalie Kai Paterson made nine saves, as Portsmouth built up a 7-1 lead going into halftime.

"I thought we played well throughout the game," Vischer said. "I was nervous we’d have a let down at halftime. It was an opportunity to get a false sense of security up 7-1 at half. That was what I was most proud of. I thought we had to get the first goal. I thought it would have been mentally fatiguing. We continued to play."

Winnacunnet (13-4) got a goal apiece from Brian McCown and Beckett Rath while Joel Williams finished with 13 saves and Alec Mitchell was 10 of 15 on faceoffs. But the Warriors turned the ball over 26 times.

"We just couldn’t get anything going and I don’t know what it was," Winnacunnet coach Pat Snow said. "I felt like at the end of the season, we were hitting our stride, we were finding our groove offensively. Portsmouth has a great defense and they had a good game plan for us. They mixed in man and zone, and we expected those things. Ultimately, too many mistakes to win a semifinal game."

After Purcell got the Clippers up 2-0, Collins scored for three-goal lead with 5:57 left in the first quarter. McCown got Winnacunnet on the board a little more than a minute later and it was still a 3-1 game well into the second quarter.

"They came out and punched us right in the mouth," Snow said. "We’re chasing three goals early and then we kind of settled in. I felt like after we got the goal, we were going to maybe get our run. But everything that could go wrong felt like it went wrong."

Baker made it 4-1 with 6:05 left in the first half and Bouvier tacked on another goal just over a minute after that. Purcell and Sifferien scored 16 seconds apart to put Portsmouth up 7-1 with 2:15 remaining in the half.

Purcell added another goal just 46 seconds into the third quarter for an 8-1 lead, and that's where the score stood until Barr made it 9-1 with 5.4 seconds left in the frame.

"We have it in us," Vischer said. "That first quarter was about as good as you can get. We can play with anybody when we’re locked in and I think the boys will be locked in (Saturday)."