Portsmouth girls lacrosse going back to D1 final after win over Exeter

NASHUA – There has been one guarantee over the past decade and that has been the Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team will be playing for a championship.

That became a reality again when top-seeded and two-time defending Division I champion Portsmouth picked up its 44th straight victory via 15-4 decision over No. 4 Exeter in Saturday night’s semifinals at Stellos Stadium.

“We are very excited to be back to where we are, we’ve been working hard all season and we’re excited for the moment,” Portsmouth senior Lily Patterson said. “We had a little trouble staying big on our attack, but in our timeouts we really talked about it. Then we went out and executed our plays like we talked about.

Patterson and sophomore Elliott Blankinsop led a balanced attack with three goals apiece. Ginger Vinciguerra, Georgia Bouvier, Raegan and Emery Lawton netted two goals each for the Clippers.

“It feels great thinking about all the hard work we’ve put into getting back to this championship game,” Blankinsop said. “We were just playing together, looking for each other and celebrating everything to keep our energy up.”

Portsmouth (17-0) will meet No. 2 Souhegan (17-1) in a rematch of last year’s championship game on Tuesday at Exeter High School’s William Ball Stadium at 5:30 p.m. The Sabers advanced with an 8-7 overtime victory over No. 3 Pinkerton Academy (14-6) in the first semifinal.

The Clippers defeated Souhegan, 12-7, in last June’s title game and Portsmouth handed the Sabers their only loss this season via an 11-5 decision in April.

“I thought we played well. There were definitely some moments of a little bit of a lull for us,” Portsmouth coach JoJo Kerrigan said. “But overall, we played very much as a team and had a lot of hustle plays and we were just really looking for that one last pass.”

Raegan Lawton, Bouvier and Blankinsop opened up the day’s scoring before Exeter’s Riley Benevides scored. Vinceguerra, Blankinsop and Patterson then responded with goals to give Portsmouth a 6-1 through the first quarter.

Portsmouth led 8-2 at halftime and expanded that lead to 12-4 entering the fourth quarter.

“We definitely came out hard, working on trying to protect that lead while playing at the same speed,” Kerrigan said.

Portsmouth will be playing in its fourth-straight Division I championship after it lost to Bedford in 2023 and defeated Bishop Guertin in 2024. The Clippers previously won five straight championships in its last five years before moving up from Division II.

The championship rematch also sets up another clash between Kerrigan and her sister, Souhegan coach McKinley Sbordone.

“It’s just another game; that’s all it is,” Kerrigan said. “We probably won’t talk to each other but that’s OK. We both have things that we want to focus on with our team and that’s where the focus should be.

“This was our goal from the first game of the season and I’m glad we’re there.”