Winnacunnet girls lacrosse starts fast on the way to win against Dover

DOVER – After an 11-day layoff following the only loss of the season to Division I Bishop Guertin, the Winnacunnet High School girls lacrosse team has come back from its break looking like a team ready to take another run at an elusive Division II championship.

The Warriors followed their lopsided wins over Manchester Memorial-West and Kingswood by scoring the first seven goals of Monday afternoon’s game against Division I Dover en route to a 13-7 victory.

“We had such a big gap in between games and we were really building, so to have that big gap, we’re starting to get back into it and I was really pleased with our performance today,” Winnacunnet coach Colleen Farias said. “They came out sharp in the first quarter. We work about and talk about relationships on the field and it’s all about finding somebody to work with.”

Sky Mace led a balanced attack for Winnacunnet (8-1) with three goals, white McKinley Fowler, Reese Gandt, Eliie Emery and Shea Graham scored two goals apiece.

“We’re definitely very happy, we had a strong first quarter, slowed it down in the middle but we picked it up at the end and finished the game strong,” Graham said. “We always try to start every game no matter the opponent really hard and come out strong and play our best game. We did that (Monday) and it was a good advantage for us.”

Fowler quickly scored within the first two minutes to open the game’s scoring and Emery quickly followed. Grandt, Emmy Granger and Clara Nardone all added goals to give Winnacunnet a 5-0 lead through the first quarter.

“After playing a couple of easier games it was nice to come out strong right away,” Nardone said. “I want to win for myself, but I also want to win for my teammates. We always want to put our best foot forward.”

The lead grew to 7-0 before Megan Healy broke the seal for Dover (5-5), but the Warriors padded their lead to 9-2 at halftime following goals by Mace and Graham. Dover tried to fight back and make a game of it in the second half by closing the lead to 11-7.

Healy and Payton Denning scored two goals each for Dover.

“Winnacunnet has been building with Shea and Sky and last year they were awesome and now they’ve got the support. They came out hard and we came out slow,” Dover coach Dana Gray said. “When we start ready to go we do well, when we don’t that’s what happens.

Gray said her team has been inconsistent and the Green Wave took a big loss when Lily Hunt tore her Achilles tendon earlier this season. Hunt was Dover’s No. 1 player for draws and had what Gray called the hardest shot on the team.

“It’s changed a lot of how we play,” Gray said.

With the first half of the season behind it, Winnacunnet now has a gauntlet of nine games within 14 days left in the regular season. The Warriors are currently in first place in the D2 standings in front of Windham (9-2).

“We’ve had a lot of players step up big time, they’re a very fit team and they have a great attitude about everything and they try to play with joy,” Farias said. “We have great leadership with our captains and they’ve worked really hard to make this a tight team.”

Graham, a University of Cincinnati commit, feels like her team is rounding into shape and the Warriors are primed to make it the D2 championship game this June after they lost to Hanover in last year’s semifinals.

”We take it one game at a time, obviously our goal is the championship, we made it to the semifinals and it was a tough loss” Graham said. “We just want to make it there this time.”