Nashua South's Kaitlyn West, left, tries to avoid the pressure by Souhegan's Finnley Casey during the Sabers' 12-10 win over the Panthers Saturday at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Measuring stick.

That’s what Saturday’s 12-10 Souhegan High School girls lacrosse victory Saturday over Nashua South was for both teams.

It’s just that the Sabers liked their results a little better.

“They’re young, athletic, fast and they’ve got amazing scoring threats,” Sabers coach McKinley Sbordone said after her team handed the Panthers their first loss of the season. “I think this is a great win for us, because it shows us we’re in it. We’ve had some really tough matchups, and this gives us a good pulse on where we’re at and how we can continue to improve.”

Souhegan has now recovered from back to back losses against powers Bishop Guertin and Bedford to move to 4-3. South, which blew through the first half its schedule with ease, is now 7-1.

“We knew it was going to be a game,” South coach Ciki McIntire said, her team now 7-1. “I’m proud of the way we competed. We only had one defensive heavy game, that was against Londonderry (a 9-7 win). This will be a great learning opportunity today.

“They proved they can compete with Souhegan. That game could have gone either way.”

The Sabers had to fight back not once but twice in this one. They trailed 6-2 than rallied to tie the game at the half with four unanswered. Then they trailed 8-6 early in the second half, and bounced back again with four straight goals.

“I think we played with a lot of heart today,” Sbordone said. “Everybody stepped up today. There were some runs, we fought back, and never got down on ourselves.”

With the score tied at 6, South grabbed that two goal lead with goals by 9 and 7, but , Souhegan’s Natalie Heimarck (three goals, four draw controls) and Lyla Kimball (two goals, two draws) scored off free positions to tie things up and Mackenzie Crestinger (team high four goals, two draw controls) got the go-ahead with 17:33 to go and forced the Panthers to call time.

It didn’t stop the surge, as Elle Steveson (two goals, assist, four draws) gave the Sabers their first two-goal lead, 10-8. Later it became 12-8 on goals by Emma Kennedy and 10:28 left and Stevenson with 6:11 to go, making it 12-8. The majority of the big Souhegan goals were off free positions.

“Free positions absolutely killed us today,” McIntire said, “trying to clean up the fouls.”

South battled back with goals by West (goal, three assists) with 3:06 left and Ella Benzekri (team high four goals, assist) with 1:53 to go, but it just wasn’t enough as the Sabers were tough on defense and smartly ran the clock out.

Clearly, the usual potent Panther offense was frustrated.

“Right off the bat they were killing us on the draw and dump,” Sbordone said. “We changed some of our matchups and were able to be more confident with our one vs. one defense.”

Sierra Kimball added a draw control and four ground ball pickups for the Sabers.

The other frustration for the Panthers was Saber goalie Shannon Hargraves, who came up with 13 saves. Keira Walsh had six stops for the Panthers.

“We just kept shooting right into Shannon’s stick offensively,” McIntire said. “If we could just place those a little bit better, we’d flip the score the other way. I think they scored on all their free position shots except two.”

Also helping South on the scoreboard were Maren Lowell (two goals, two assists, four draws), Maddy Matylewski (two goals) and Kylie Dawe (goal, two draws).

“I was so impressed with our second half shooting,” Sbordone said. “We were staying with the game plan, looking at what was working …

“A really, really good win for us.”