Ruhnke closes in on milestone as Portsmouth girls lacrosse dispatches Exeter

PORTSMOUTH – Morgan Ruhnke knew there was an outside chance that she’d be able to reach the 200-goal milestone for her career on her home turf when her Portsmouth High School girls lacrosse team welcomed Exeter on Wednesday night.

That accomplishment will have to wait for another day, but the most important thing for the senior standout is that the undefeated and defending Division I champions are clicking on all cylinders.

Ruhnke needed seven goals to reach the achievement, but she and her sophomore teammate Emery Lawton scored five goals apiece to keep Portsmouth rolling with a 22-9 victory on Tom Daubney Field.

“I was thinking about it, but it wasn’t necessarily the priority, the team winning is more important,” Ruhnke said. “We did so well as a team (Wednesday). We came out super composed and we wanted to play intensely. We did that and I’m just super proud of our team.”

Ruhnke scored a pair of goals in the first half to help give Portsmouth (10-0, No. 1 in the MerchSquared.com/NHHSSports Coaches Poll) an 11-5 lead and then she scored 41 seconds into the third quarter. She added her fourth goal two minutes later and tallied her fifth with 3:10 left in the frame to give the Clippers a 16-7 cushion.

With a decent chance to reach the milestone in the fourth quarter, Ruhnke didn’t score and just played into the flow of the game with the rest of her talented teammates.

“That just shows how selfless she is,” Portsmouth coach JoJo Curro said. “Could she have done it? Probably, but she distributed the ball and was a team player like she always is. She leads by example and that’s a good example for the underclassmen to see.

“She’s a great role model like that on and off the field.”

Ruhnke will likely become the second Clipper in back-to-back seasons to eclipse 200 goals after current Syracuse University freshman Annie Parker did it last year. Ruhnke should reach it on Friday at Windham.

“It just shows how strong and powerful she is because that’s a huge accomplishment for a player,” Curro said. “Two hundred goals isn’t easy, but it just shows how much of a threat she is and how good she is.”

Ruhnke, who’ll play in college at Loyola Maryland next year, is currently sixth on the program’s all-time-goal scoring with 198 and rising. She trails Emily Whitney (261), Sam Whitney (238), Annie Parker (227), Devon Parker (210) and Gracie Getman (206).

“It’s all credit to my teammates for setting me up,” Ruhnke said. “They give me huge opportunities to score, so I think that’s just a huge aspect to my success on the field.”

Ruhnke has plenty of help all over the field for a Portsmouth offense that is averaging 16.8 goals a game and scored its season high on Wednesday. Ginger Vinciguerra, Reagan Lawton, Lily Paterson and Georgia Bouvier all added three goals each.

“I’m super proud of our team and our coaches for the preparation we put into the game and I am just happy we got the win to stay undefeated,” Emery Lawton said. “Every practice we work hard to our goal and work together as a team and that’s just showing on the field.”

It was the second straight game for Exeter (8-3, No. 4) against the cream of the crop in Division I after it dropped a 17-12 decision to Pinkerton Academy (10-1) on Monday. Claire Wilhelm led Exeter with three goals.

“We practiced hard for them, watched a lot of film and we did everything we could think of to match what they were doing,” Exeter coach Angela Palmer said. “We couldn’t wait for these games. I think we still have a good rest of the season ahead of us.”

With the two hundred goals soon to be in the rearview mirror, Ruhnke is more thrilled that her team is looking every bit the part of a team that is primed to repeat as champions.

“Each game, each practice we’re getting so much better and that just helps us set up for the postseason,” Ruhnke said. “We’re undefeated, we want to stay undefeated and reach that ultimate goal.”