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# Portsmouth girls lacrosse controls second half to beat Winnacunnet for 3rd straight D2 title
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/portsmouth-girls-lacrosse-controls-second-half-to-beat-winnacunnet-for-3rd-straight-d2-title/
- Published: 2019-06-05T18:00:31.000Z
- Updated: 2019-06-05T18:00:31.000Z
- Description: HOOKSETT - For some, no matter how much time is spent on the biggest stage, there are still nerves. For the Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team, despite playing in its fourth straight championship game, it took about a half to settle those feelings down. Getting a goal moments before the buzz
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, championship, girls lacrosse, playoffs, Portsmouth, slider, Winnacunnet, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

HOOKSETT - For some, no matter how much time is spent on the biggest stage, there are still nerves.

For the Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team, despite playing in its fourth straight championship game, it took about a half to settle those feelings down.

Getting a goal moments before the buzzer sounded to end the first half seemed to help, and the Clippers relaxed enough in the second half to play their game and take control of the Tuesday's Division II championship game.

No. 1 Portsmouth held No. 3 Winnacunnet to just one goal over the final 31 minutes of the game and dominated possession in the final 10 minutes to beat the Warriors 10-5 at Southern New Hampshire University's Penmen Stadium. It's the third D2 championship in a row for the Clippers, and the program's seventh overall.

Anna Smith led Portsmouth (19-2) with three goals and three assists while Sallie Squire, Kate Campel and Julia Roelofs added two goals apiece. Maddy Roelofs also had a goal and an assist while Grace Jackson made all seven of her saves in the second half to help the Clippers shut down the Warriors' offense.

"It’s a really great feeling knowing that I probably had five or six saves total, and that’s so important when it’s a tight game like this," Jackson said. "I think my energy, from tracking the ball, that feeds into our defense, which feeds into our offense, which makes us play so much better."

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/jmd2glaxfinal060419-p18-1wm.jpg)

Portsmouth's Sallie Squire had two goals in the final.

Portsmouth was able to turn those defensive stops into goals at the other end in the second half, turning a 4-4 tie at halftime into a 6-4 lead with 18:05 remaining in the game. Winnacunnet (14-6) scored a few minutes after taking a timeout to get back within one, but goals by Julia Roelofs and Squire just 1:08 apart made it 8-5 with 9:39 to play.

"I think it was a matter of us just spreading them out," Portsmouth coach Mary Squire said. "Their slides come hard and often. I think it was a matter of us creating more space for our attack to work with, and we did a much better job of that in the last 15 minutes.

"Our biggest focus (defensively) was the transitional game for them. They have a lot of speed, a lot of great athletes. When one or two of them want to put the game on their back, they’re going to come in hard. We did make that adjustment in practice this week. Outside of that, we’ve just worked off the same defense we’ve run and what the girls are comfortable with. The communication piece, they were really rocking on all cylinders."

Brooke McErlain and Alisyn McNamara had a goal and an assist apiece for Winnacunnet, which came into the game averaging 16.3 goals over its 10-game win streak. Serena Kollmorgen, Sarah Taylor and Anne Rademacher also had a goal apiece and Lainey Parrott made seven saves.

The Clippers took a 1-0 lead 5:02 into the game on a goal by Campel and Winnacunnet tied it up 2:18 later on Kollmorgen's goal. Maddy Roelofs put Portsmouth back in front with 13:36 remaining in the half, but again, the Warriors tied it, this time on a goal by McNamara just 57 seconds later.

McErlain gave Winnacunnet its first lead on a free-position goal with 8:21 to go in the half, but this time, Portsmouth tied it right away, on a goal by Smith just 24 seconds later. After the Warriors won the draw, Taylor put them on top again, with 6:08 remaining until halftime, and it looked like Winnacunnet might take the lead into the break.

But Julia Roelofs was given a free position with a couple of seconds left in the half and found the back of the net right before the buzzer to tie it at 4.

"That was huge, and by a freshman," Mary Squire said. "It stunned everybody and I think from that point forward, the girls knew we were going to do this. We could do it."

Given that the teams were playing for the third time this season - and eighth time in the last three years, with Portsmouth winning all of them - the goal was a big swing in momentum.

"I think that brought up our intensity, especially having one of our starting freshman score it," Sallie Squire said. "It built up the strength and confidence we needed going into the second half. The first half, we definitely had a lot of nerves and with our starting lineup being so underclassmen-heavy, we definitely needed the upperclassmen to slow us down a little bit and calm our nerves."

Smith put Portsmouth up for good with a goal at 2:48 of the second half and Squire made it 6-4 with her first of the game with 18:05 remaining.

Throughout the second half, the defense kept Winnacunnet in check, led by Jackson, who came up with timely saves, including three stops back-to-back-to-back with Portsmouth up three goals. The Warriors won the draw after Squire made it 8-5 and they put a pair of shots on goal before McErlain was awarded a free position.

Jackson came up with one more save, then caught a break when the rebound went to the far side, but Winnacunnet's Brenna Bushe couldn't control the ground ball. Portsmouth regained possession and ran nearly four minutes off the clock before Campel scored with 2:08 remaining to make it 9-5.

"I’m so proud of my teammates," Jackson said. "I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end senior year. My sophomore year, that was a big one, since we had lost the year before. This one has a whole different meaning to me, since it’s my last game."