Winnacunnet stifles Oyster River-Newmarket to advance to D2 boys lacrosse final

EXETER –  The Winnacunnet High School boys lacrosse team has shown all season long that it belonged in the discussion along with perennial powers Derryfield and Portsmouth to win the Division II championship.

The Warriors have reached the final step to prove they were the team to beat all along.

Top-seeded Winnacunnet broke open a two-goal lead and held No. 4 Oyster River-Newmarket scoreless for nearly 19 minutes en route to Wednesday night’s 16-7 victory in the D2 semifinals at Exeter High School’s William Ball Stadium.

“This has been the goal all season, to get to the championship," Winnacunnet junior midfielder Spencer Zigler said. “It’s a dream come true and now we have to go out and capitalize.”

Zigler scored a game-high five goals to help Winnacunnet (17-1) reach its second D2 championship game in program history when it returns to Exeter to play the aforementioned Derryfield at 5 p.m. Saturday

No. 2 Derryfield (17-2) advanced with a 10-7 win over third-seeded, two-time defending champion Portsmouth (16-4) in Wednesday’s earlier action.

Winnacunnet’s only other title game appearance was a loss to Derryfield in 2019. Derryfield and Portsmouth have combined to win the past nine D2 championships.

“I’m super excited with how we played,” Winnacunnet coach Pat Snow said. “I’m happy with our defense and our goalie and they took care of that. Our offense got out and ran a little bit and we had some unsettled goals. It was a good team win.”

Winnacunnet added to its 5-3 lead when Alec Mitchell (four goal) scored 42 seconds into the second quarter.

Oyster River-Newmarket (12-5) closed to within 6-4 following a goal from Alex Moody (three goals) but that would be the last time the Bobcats would score until late in the third quarter.

Zigler, Mitchell and Brian McCown finished out the second with goals to give Winnacunnet a 9-4 halftime lead. Zigler, Beckett Rath and McCown all scored in the third quarter to give the Warriors a 12-4 lead entering the fourth.

“The defense did a great job and kept us in the game and let the offense build off the defense,” Zigler said. “Then we got rolling and you couldn’t stop it.

Winacunnet junior goalie Joel Williams made 10 saves and directed traffic in front of him that effectively shut down the Bobcats’ offense for the final 36 minutes.

“Those first four goals were tough because they came off clears and bad transition,” Williams said. “We came out of a huddle in the second quarter and we really locked down what we wanted to do fundamentally on defense. We played incredible defense.”

Now Winnacunnet has a chance to break through as a champion in its final season in D2 before moving to Division I next spring. The Warriors head into the game with a 14-13 win over Derryfield under their belt from last month.

“We’re so excited. They’re goal was to get to this game and now that goal is going to shift to winning it,” Snow said. “Derryfield is great. (Chris Hettler) is one of the best coaches in the state, so I know they’re going to be prepared and we’re going to have to be really good.

“It’s going to take an all effort like we had (Wednesday).”