Windham girls lacrosse starts fast, hangs on for win over Souhegan (video)

WINDHAM - There was reason for the Windham High School girls lacrosse team to feel like an underdog going into Wednesday's game against Souhegan.

Playing against a program from a higher division with the success the Sabers have had, the Jaguars needed to find away to keep their confidence high.

Maria Killian helped Windham (No. 9 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) do just that, as she helped the Jaguars get off to a fast start, and hold off a couple of Souhegan (No. 5) rallies for a 12-7 win in a non-division game at Windham.

Killian finished with seven goals and an assist, including two in the final 15 minutes that helped the Jaguars turn a close game into a comfortable win.

"She’s the one we go to," said Windham assistant coach Joe Connelly, who was filling in for head coach Russ Perkins. "A lot of pressure on her coming off a fantastic first year and she’s really the captain of the offense. She knows what to do with it and she’s very calm.

"When she has space, she has a great stick and she can put it in the net. The more goals she gets, the more confidence she gets."

The whole team seemed to gain in confidence early, when Windham (2-0) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game. That put Souhegan (1-1) in an early hole that the Sabers spent the rest of the game trying to climb out of, and while they were able to get within two goals with 16:21 remaining, they couldn't overcome.

"We did not come out disciplined and Windham fought harder," Souhegan coach McKinley Sbordone said. "We started playing scared and timid on groundballs and Windham capitalized on it in the first half. We were just trying to claw out of that deficit. They’re a gritty, aggressive team."

Windham also got two goals and an assist from Chloe Hall and a goal and two assists from Sophia Ponzini. Jenna Hollinger and Emma Kendzulak added a goal apiece and Cecilia Ponzini had an assist while Annie Mitchell made eight saves and Bella Connelly played well defensively.

"The goaltending was excellent, the defense, we finally started to click," Connelly said. "We’ve got pretty much a whole cast of new defenders, and through three or four scrimmages and all preseason, it wasn’t quite clicking. It started to click (Wednesday)."

Mackenize Cretsinger had a goal and three assists to lead Souhegan while Emma Kennedy and Lyla Kimball had two goals apiece. Riley Devine added a goal, as did Elle Stevenson, but her day ended early when she picked up her second yellow card less than four minutes into the second half.

After the Jaguars took the early lead, the Sabers came back to make it 3-2 and 4-3 on a goal by Kennedy with 10:59 left in the first half. Souhegan won the ensuing draw and got a good look, but Mitchell came up with a save and Kendzulak scored at the other end, starting a 4-0 run by Windham to end the half.

The Jaguars won all four draws over the final eight-plus minutes of the half to aid them in that run.

"Possession wins the game for sure," Sbordone said. "They dominated us on draws and groundballs. I think we made a great adjustment in the second half on draws, but they still got 50-50 balls. It’s a good test early on to get a good pulse of where we’re at."

Souhegan got two goals in 13 seconds to open the second half, cutting the lead to 8-5, but Mitchell came up with another save on the Sabers' next possession, and after Stevenson picked up her second yellow, Killian scored to make it 9-5.

Back-to-back goals by Kennedy and Kimball in 34 seconds got the Sabers back within two, 9-7, with 16:21 to play, but the Jaguars were able to win draws and keep possession for long stretches. That included an almost eight-minute possession late that ended with Hollinger's goal to finish out the scoring with 1:55 remaining.

"That’s probably the longest we’ve possessed the ball in our offensive zone," Connelly said. "It was a great job top to bottom. They wanted it and they deserved it."