Portsmouth girls lacrosse holds off Bishop Guertin to advance to D1 title game (video)

EXETER - The Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team looked well on its way to reaching the Division I championship game.

But Bishop Guertin, the four-time defending D1 champions, wasn't quite done.

The No. 6 Cardinals put a bit of a scare into the No. 2 Clippers, who won the previous five Division II titles before moving up this season, but in the end, Portsmouth was able to hang on for a 14-12 win over Bishop Guertin in Saturday's semifinal at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

Now the Clippers (18-2) will have a shot at their sixth title in a row, and first in D1, when they take on No. 1 Bedford in the final at 7 p.m. Tuesday, also in Exeter.

Annie Parker had five goals and an assist to lead Portsmouth while Avery and Morgan Ruhnke each had three goals and an assist. Sally Collins added two goals and a helper and Charlotte Martson also scored, as the Clippers led by as many as six goals in the first half and kept Bishop Guertin at bay until the final four minutes.

"When we had the ball, we were trying to almost take some time off the clock a bit, and sometimes, when we do that, our mindset changes a little bit," Portsmouth coach JoJo Curro said. "We’ve got to make sure when we do that, we’re in control of what we’re doing and we dictate what happens to the ball."

After leading by 4-5 goals throughout the second half, the Clippers went up 14-9 on Martson's goal with 4:07 remaining, and although the Cardinals won the ensuing draw, Portsmouth's defense was able to keep Bishop Guertin off the board for almost two minutes.

But all of a sudden, the Cardinals started to come back, scoring three goals in a minute to cut the lead to two and force the Clippers to take a timeout with 1:14 to play. Bishop Guertin won the draw again, but couldn't get a good look before Portsmouth got the ball back and ran out the clock.

Anna Campel led the Cardinals (12-6) with six goals and she was on the draw for all of the second half, when Bishop Guertin won 9 of 14 draw controls.

"Anna Campel was carrying the team," Bishop Guertin coach Leslie Why said. "Lights out. She showed up in the biggest way possible, not just on the draw, but finishing down (on offense). She was able to get possession and put it in a place where we could get possession and totally shifted the energy and the focus. She showed up in a really big way."

Lauren Redfern added two goals and an assist and Kamryn Schmitt also scored twice for the Cardinals, while Ariana Kouchalakos and Skylar Neftali had a goal apiece. Maddy Eder-Linnell finished with nine saves, but early on, Portsmouth was able to find way to beat the sophomore goalie and the Bishop Guertin defense.

The Clippers led 4-1 before the Cardinals got two goals back, but over a span of 5:38, Portsmouth went on a 5-0 run to take a 9-3 lead with 4:14 remaining until halftime. Two goals from Campel in the final minute of the half got Bishop Guertin back within four, but the momentum didn't carry over to the second half.

Parker opened the scoring just 42 seconds in to make it 10-5, and despite Portsmouth picking up three yellow cards in the second half, the teams traded goals most of the way.

"I think we just really felt the momentum and let that guide us and took it," Curro said. "We knew this was going to be a competitive game, even when we were up by a few, we knew they’d quickly come back. Being able to be OK with that and keep responding, don’t sit back on our heels, don’t let it get to us, and keep moving forward."

Portsmouth was able to do so in the second half thanks to goalie Sage Bussiere. After the freshman had just one save in the first half, she came up with six saves in the second half, including a couple down the stretch that kept the Clippers in front when the Cardinals went on their run.

"She played great," Curro said. "Huge saves in the second half that we desperately needed and she made it happen.

"They started winning draws and then a few calls didn’t go our way. I think that was a big piece of it. I think we were letting that frustrate us. We needed to take a deep breath and play our game. We always say those are the uncontrolables. There’s nothing we can do about it, we’ve just got to go and play."