Portsmouth boys lacrosse survives slow start to beat Windham in D2 semis (video)

NASHUA - The Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse team was on a roll offensively.

In the final four regular-season games, the Clippers averaged 14.3 goals per and then dropped in 17 in their quarterfinal win.

But in Wednesday's Division II semifinal, early in the second quarter, not only did Portsmouth have just two goals on the board, it was looking at a two-goal deficit.

The top-seeded Clippers snapped out of it long enough in the second quarter to go on a 3-0 to take the lead and then wore down No. 4 Windham's defense in the fourth quarter to get an 11-4 win over the Jaguars at Stellos Stadium in Nashua. The win sends Portsmouth to the D2 title game for the third year in a row, where the Clippers will go for their third-straight title against No. 2 Derryfield at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

"I thought Windham played a great game," Portsmouth coach Chad Vischer said. "We wore them down, we had a lot of possessions. Our defense tightened up, our guys buckled down and played hard-nosed defense. We weren’t making great shots and they were making great saves. We were getting shots, so they’re going to go in eventually."

For a little more than a quarter, the Jaguars were doing everything they needed to in order to pull of an upset, starting with goalie Casey Kramer. The junior finished with 21 saves, including several highlight-reel stops in the first half to keep Windham in it.

"He’s been our backbone," Windham coach Derek St. Cyr said. "The saves he makes, often, we’re at a loss for words. He’s amazing and he’s a junior, so we’ll have him back next year."

Windham (14-5) also kept Portsmouth's biggest threats in check for most of the night, holding Zac Amend (two goals, two assists) and Nick Smith to a combined three goals, one of which came in the final minute of the game. The Clippers (18-1) needed support from the rest of their offense and they got it.

Lucas Patten scored the first three goals of the game for Portsmouth and finished with a team-high four, while Ben Purcell (two assists) and Baden Paterson each had two goals. Smith also had an assist and Kai Paterson made six saves for the Clippers.

But a combination of overconfidence against a Windham defense that had just held Winnacunnet in check the previous round left Portsmouth trailing early. The Jaguars led 2-0 midway through the first and 3-2 at the end of one before a transition goal by Brian Desmarais made it 4-2 just 31 seconds into the second quarter.

"We had better possessions (in the second half) and I think there may be some overconfidence going into the game," Vischer said. "If you look at the end of our schedule, we scored pretty freely, and then we had a good game against HB.

"I think they thought the goals were just going to keep coming, but Windham doesn’t hold Winnacunnet to basically one goal for no reason. It’s a good goalie, it’s a good defense. It wasn’t like we played poorly and they got lucky. They played a very good, solid defense, sliding. We had to look to alternate goal scorers."

It was Patten early, as he scored both first-quarter goals and then got the Clippers within one, 4-3, with 9:57 to play in the first half. Amend and Smith followed with back-to-back goals 43 seconds apart to give Portsmouth a 5-4 lead and that's where the score stood for more than a quarter.

Neither team would score again for more than 12 minutes of game time. The biggest difference in that stretch was the Clippers' ability to maintain long possessions while the Jaguars' struggled to keep the ball in the offensive zone.

"Our offense was non-existent in the second half, which is unfortunate," St. Cyr said. "We played great. We got off to a fantastic start. The energy was there. We came out firing which was what we needed to do. Portsmouth is a great team. We couldn’t possess the ball in the second half. You can’t beat a team like Portsmouth with how we played in the second half, it’s as simple as that."

Baden Paterson made it 6-4, scoring the only goal of the third quarter with 6:20 remaining, and then made it 7-4 just 1:12 into the fourth. Portsmouth spent the rest of the quarter methodically building on its lead.

"Start dodging from (Amend) to feed and that started happening, and we started moving the ball around a little bit," Vischer said of what Portsmouth did differently in the second half. "That’s big. It’s no dark secret that we rely a lot on Nick and Zac, and it’s good for guys to build confidence, that we can rely on other guys. It was good for those guys to step up."