Portsmouth makes it two titles in a row with win over Derryfield in D2 boys lacrosse final (video)

EXETER - The Portsmouth High School boys lacrosse team had an answer for everything that was thrown its way Sunday in the Division II championship game.

Give up the first goal of the game? No problem, score the next three. Break even on faceoffs in the first half? No problem, just make some adjustments and win 70 percent the rest of the way.

Every time No. 2 Derryfield appeared to gain some momentum, the top-seeded Clippers were able to respond, whether it was a stop, a save, or a couple of goals, and it ended with Portsmouth claiming a 16-10 win over the Cougars at Bill Ball Stadium. It's the Clippers second D2 title in a row and the first time in three tries that they've beaten Derryfield in the title game.

"That was a heck of a battle," Portsmouth coach Chad Vischer said. "For us to be able to have that fortitude, and I told the boys, plan on a battle. It was somewhere in the second quarter, I said ‘guys, we’re up by three,’ against the perennial power, the guys coached by the best coach in the state. We’re not going to be able to just run away with this win. We’ve got to be ready to grind and we did."

The Clippers (19-1, No. 3 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) ran away in their own way, turning a three-goal lead at halftime into an advantage that grew to as many as seven in the fourth quarter by responding to every surge by the Cougars (15-4, No. 5) with one of their own.

"They didn’t allow us to continue momentum," Derryfield coach Chris Hettler said. "Every time we’d get on a two-goal run, Nick (Smith) did a good job in the faceoff circle of mitigating that and they’d get it back. And there were times we did some silly things, we took some unnecessary penalties or we threw a ball away that we shouldn’t, and you can’t do that against a really good team."

Keigan Delisle led Portsmouth four goals and an assist while Dom Maldari and Mike O'Neil each had three goals. Keghan Myers added two goals and two assists and Zac Amend also scored twice while Nick Smith and Dylan Roelofs recorded a goal apiece.

Smith also finished the day 19 of 30 on faceoffs, including 12 of 17 in the second half, and Skyler Mikolaities made six saves.

"Coach Vischer kept telling us, playing with a lead against these guys is never going to be comfortable, it’s never going to be safe," Maldari said. "I think we just believed in our system. It’s been working for us the whole time. Just moving the ball on offense and making sure everyone is getting touches. Defensively, it was just talking and communicating, making sure our slides were there, making sure all those little things are planned out. I think when we’re doing all those things, and doing them well, I think we’re a tough team to beat."

Derryfield got three goals and an assist from Tate Flint while Quinn Silvio had two goals and two assists and Alex Murray had a goal and an assist. Chili Cabot added a goal and a helper while Ethan Flanagan, RJ Proulx and John Kramer had a goal each.

Parker Lebiedz finished 12 saves to help keep the Cougars in the game.

"Their goalie played phenomenal," Vischer said. "We could have had 10 more goals, we played so well. Hats off to him, he made some big saves."

Just like in its semifinal win over Windham, Derryfield scored in the game's first minute, as Flint put the Cougars up 1-0 just 27 seconds into the game. But the lead was short lived, as Maldari and Delisle scored 21 seconds apart, and a minute later, it was 2-1 Portsmouth.

The Clippers took a 4-3 lead into the second quarter and stretched the lead to three on back-to-back goals by O'Neil just 11 seconds apart. Portsmouth held that lead for most of the quarter, until a goal by Flanagan - when the Clippers had seven players on defense - made it 6-4 with 2:52 left in the half.

Roelofs scored before halftime to put the Clippers up 7-4, but it was the only goal for Portsmouth over a 16-minute stretch that spanned the second and third quarters.

"I think in the second half, we ran our offense a little bit more," Vischer said. "In the first half, it was a little more isolation and shoot. That’s not good. Our strength is when we move the ball and we started doing that in the second half."

Neither team could break through over the first half of the third quarter, until Amend finally found the back of the net off an assist from Ben Purcell. Smith won the ensuing faceoff - his sixth in a row at that point - and Delisle scored just 56 seconds later to make it 9-4 Portsmouth.

Those two goals started a run of scoring that saw a combined seven goals in just 3:07, with Delisle scoring three straight goals for the Clippers, and ended up with Portsmouth up 11-7. The Clippers added a manup goal by Myers with 1:31 left in the third to lead by five going into the final quarter.

"It’s a luxury that not a lot of teams are fortunate to have," Maldari said. "We have it and any guy on the offense can step up. Every single guy is able to get to the goal when they want and I think it just forces teams to respect, you know, if a guy scores a goal once, they’ve got to respect him. Then another guy scores and I think that’s really helpful in a game like this."

A goal by Kramer with 8:50 remaining got Derryfield back within four goals, but Amend and Smith scored 11 seconds apart, and Maldari added another goal 1:05 after that to give Portsmouth its largest lead at 15-8 with 5:56 to play.

"When you’re the team that has been dominant all season long, you know what you’re good at and the other team is going to have to stop you," Hettler said. "They might have some wrinkles that if you need, you could throw out. But they proved it all season long. I think until we proved that we could make them change, they were going to run what they were going to run, and they pretty much did."