Portsmouth withstands Souhegan's challenge to win 2nd straight D1 girls lacrosse title (video)

EXETER - The Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team thought it would have an answer if Souhegan came out to challenge it during Tuesday's Division I championship game.

Having played just two games all season that were decided by fewer than 10 goals, the Clippers wanted to get a test, and the Sabers were more than happy to give them one.

Down by a goal at the end of the first quarter, top-seeded Portsmouth was able to find that answer, and after retaking the lead in the second, the Clippers opened things up in the third on the way to a 12-7 win over No. 3 Souhegan at Bill Ball Stadium.

Morgan Ruhnke led the way for Portsmouth (20-0) with six goals in her final high school game, giving her 80 goals on the season and 240 for her career, second on the program's all-time list.

"Morgan had a fantastic game " Portsmouth coach JoJo Curro said. "She’s been a fantastic player this entire season and her entire career. I’m glad we were able to end her Portsmouth career with an undefeated championship.

"She’s extremely reliable. She plays steady, she always has a good mental state. Sometimes you’ve got to lead by example on the field and that’s definitely what she was doing. When we got down, she was the one out there saying we’re fine."

Emery Lawton added three goals while Raegan Lawton and Georgia Bouvier had a goal and an assist apiece. Ginger Vinciguerra also scored and Addie Delisle and Maddy Houghton each had an assist.

Defensively, the Clippers were able to hold the Sabers' leading scorers largely in check while goal Sage Bussiere had five saves, most of which came at key moments.

"They have a great high-pressure defense, too," Souhegan coach McKinley Curro-Sbordone said. "I give them a ton of credit, but we need to handle that pressure better and move the ball faster to find those openings. We’re getting there.

"What’s exciting is we have a young team and they’re all starting to get it. They’ve just got to come back stronger. I told them to remember this, that they should be pissed off, because we’ve got a lot of work to do to get back here."

Lanai Hickman led Souhegan (14-4) with two goals while Izzy Stevenson, Libby Kennedy, Emmy Curran, Natalie Heimarck and Averie Curran had one apiece.

Hickman scored her first goal with 20 seconds left in the first quarter, when she forced a turnover on a Portsmouth clear and was able to put the ball into the open net before Bussiere could get back in the crease.

That gave Souhegan a 3-2 lead it had managed to build by doing its best to take Portsmouth out of its offensive game plan.

"They are powerful attackers and we jammed them up," Curro-Sbordone said. "We executed our game plan just how we wanted but we couldn’t put enough numbers on the board."

But the Clippers were able to methodically turn the tables in the second quarter, as Ruhnke scored twice to give Portsmouth a 4-3 lead with 7:44 left in the first half. Raegan Lawton scored to make it 5-3 with 4:06 left, but Hickman got Souhegan back on the board with 1:10 to play in the half.

Any momentum that goal gave the Sabers, Ruhnke quickly erased, as she scored with 28 seconds remaining for a 6-4 Portsmouth lead at the break.

"We had some jitters in the first half," Ruhnke said. "At halftime, we kind of regrouped and took a couple of deep breaths and got through it. In the third quarter, we turned on the jets and finished it out."

Vinciguerra and Emery Lawton had goals early in the third quarter to make it an 8-4 lead and Ruhnke and Emery Lawton tacked on back-to-back goals just 33 seconds apart to give Portsmouth its biggest lead with 6:07 left in the frame.

"We had a good halftime talk," Curro said. "They had to dig deep internally and they wanted it."

The Clippers took an 11-5 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Sabers weren't done, as goalie Emma Crisman (five saves) made a pair of saves that Souhegan turned into goals by Stevenson and Kennedy.

That made it 11-7 with 6:40 to play, but Portsmouth won the ensuing draw and ran 90 seconds off the clock. Souhegan got the ball back, but had possession for nearly two minutes with nothing to show for it before turning the ball over.

From there, the Clippers were able to run out most of the remaining time.

"We kept telling them keep fighting, anything is possible, but at that point, it was going to be really hard to get the ball back," Curro-Sbordone said. "In a stall, once they got that finally goal, it was kind of like the nail in the coffin."

The win gives Portsmouth back-to-back D1 titles and seven titles in the last eight seasons overall. In each of their three seasons in D1, the Clippers have beaten the Sabers in the playoffs.

For Curro, its also the ninth win in 10 head-to-head meetings against her older sister, as both took over their respective programs before the 2021 season. Both are also Souhegan graduates.