Portsmouth girls lacrosse continues to roll with win over Exeter

EXETER – The eight seniors on this year’s Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team were freshmen when the Clippers made the jump to Division I and immediately tasted success by reaching the championship game.

Portsmouth followed that loss to Bedford with back-to-back championships, and that experienced group has kept the program rolling with only one destination of a three-peat in its sight.

The Clippers continued their domination by winning their 36th straight game in a row in Wednesday’s 18-5 victory over Exeter at William Ball Stadium. Portsmouth (9-0) has won 37 straight games against New Hampshire competition.

“We definitely have a mature team and we’ve been in some high-stakes games and have been able to handle the pressure on and off the field,” Portsmouth coach JoJo Kerrigan said. “We’re just trying to play smart, they’re staying composed and there are still gaps here and there that as a coach I would like to see them rise a little bit. But overall they’ve been able to execute the game plan.”

Portsmouth graduated only two players from last year’s 20-0 campaign that ended with a win over Souhegan in the championship game. Among those returnees are junior twin sisters Emery and Raegen Lawton, who scored four goals apiece on Wednesday and are aboth committed to the University of Pennsylvania.

“We’re just looking to play our own game and build towards a championship every day,” Portsmouth senior Ginger Vinciguerra said. “We want to keep up that intensity and keep that team culture really strong at Portsmouth and keep winning at Division I.”

Vinciguerra has been an integral part since she stepped on the field as a freshman and is nearing 150 goals in her career. She’ll be playing next year at the University of Pittsburgh.

“She’s a huge piece of our team and she plays with such composure and doesn’t get rattled and she is so strong on the draw and on all ends of the field,” Kerrigan said. “She is a big piece of Portsmouth lacrosse. She is the type of player that rises to a challenge and I think she’s going to be very successful moving forward.”

Lily Paterson helped get the Clippers out to a fast start on Wednesday by scoring a pair of goals in the opening two minutes and finished with three goals in a 7-1 first quarter that grew into a 12-2 halftime lead for Portsmouth.

Paterson won’t be playing lacrosse next year but will join Vinciguerra in studying biology at Pitt.

“We’re just constantly looking to improve our games and trying to find new ways to score and more people to score and I think a game like (Wednesday) really shows how many scorers we really have,” Paterson said.

While Portsmouth’s offense is averaging 15.7 goals a game, the defense has allowed only 4.1 goals per game, led by four-year starting goalie Sage Bussiere (seven saves).

“Being a goalie is such a hard position and is such a mental game, but she does such a great job of staying in that moment and not letting past moments linger,” Kerrigan said. “She goes on to a fresh start and gets right back into it.”

Portsmouth will begin its final six-game stretch to end the regular season on Friday at home against Windham.

“I think every player on our team is a threat and all the underclassmen are really great and I think we have a really good chance to win again,” Vinciguerra said.