Bishop Guertin players gather around goalie Maddy Eder-Linell after falling in Tuesday night's Divison I final to Portsmouth, 12-7 in Exeter. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

EXETER – Game changer, title hopes dasher.

The Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team was heading toward a chance to tie their Division I championship game with No. 1 Portsmouth on Tuesday at sun splashed Bill Ball Stadium.

Abby Lynn, Guertin’s usual possession sparkplug, was making a move in the third quarter when the Clippers’ Morgan Ruhnke stripped her of the ball without a foul, and began running down field. And running. And running – all the way untouched to score a goal that gave the Clippers an 8-6 lead with 5:13 left in the period, a lead and a spark they took into the final quarter of a 12-7 championship win.

“The big thing we kept telling the kids was just chip away, one step at a time,” Guertin coach Callie Santos said, an otherwise successful BG season ended at 16-4. “Portsmouth was coming up with great plays, they were doing an awesome job. They came to compete today, so they’re a really talented group of kids, they came ready to go.

“So we were kind of on our heels in those scenarios. Instead of a goal, it turned up the other way.”

“I didn’t blink,” Portsmouth coach JoJo Curro said of watching Ruhnke’s play. “I didn’t want to miss a single second of that. Her speed, she was just so explosive. When she got out I said, ‘She’s going. And she needs to go.’ And she did. She has such a strong shot and is such a strong player. Once she has the ball and she’s going, she’s impossible to stop.”

Guertin did strike first in the fourth quarter on a goal by Arianna Kuchalakos with 10:33 remaining, but that was the final goal of their 2024 season.

That’s when Portsmouth senior Annie Parker (five goals, one assists) went to work. The Syracuse bound midfielder set Emery Lawton up perfectly to make it 9-7 with 8:58 left, and then a minute later added a goal herself to make it a 10-7 game with 7:47 remaining. Portsmouth had Parker, BG didn’t, and she was a difference maker as one would expect.

“One hundred percent,” Curro said. “When we had the ball, we wanted those slides to happen, and when they did, it made things open for other players.”

Thirty seconds later Ginger Vinciguerra scored and the Clippers were on their way, up 11-7. Their last goal was scored just before the horn sounded, but not before an impressive 4:45 possession that ran out the clock.

“It’s a good game plan, right,” Santos said. “You’ve got four minutes left, you hold the ball, you have a sizeable lead. … It’s what you do.”

Portsmouth (17-2) did a lot right in winning their fifth state title in six years (four in Division II). The first thing they did was jump out to a quick 3-0 lead on two Parker goals with a Ruhnke goals sandwiched in between. BG didn’t get a goal until Kamrynn Schmitt scored with just 46 seconds left in the opening quarter.

“It put us in a tough spot,” Santos said. “We were never able to get that lead, that go-ahead. Once they got that go-ahead on their side, right, their energy got up and they were able to capitalize on the opportunity.”

The Cards did tie the game on a Lola Dumont goal with 1:18 left in the half, but Portsmouth took a 5-4 lead into the locker room on another Parker tally with 35.9 ticks left in the half. The last time was 5-5 early in the third, but the Clippers’ Raegan Lawton put Portsmouth up for good, 6-5, with 9:26 left in the quarter.

Besides their timely goals, the Clippers smothered a lot of BG’s top guns defensively. Lauren Redfern was held scoreless by the job done by Portsmouth’s Maddie Houghton, and Schmitt was held to that one goal. Kouchalakos, who had six in the semis, managed three yesterday, while others were by Lola Dumont, Mariella Tomasello and Skylar Naftali. The Cards never led, turned the ball over 12 times, and Portsmouth goalie Sage Bussiere had seven saves. BG goalie Maddy Eder-Linnell ended up with the same.

“I think our defense is what stepped up,” Curro said. “We had (caused) so many turnovers, Sage had so many saves, crucial saves. That’s why we won this game, those big defensive moments.”

“They were playing in a zone, too, which makes it a lot harder,” Santos said. “They were very deliberate in a zone, we struggled to adapt to it, and keep the ball moving.”

Bishop Guertin’s Arianna Kouchalakos (12) is pressured by Portsmouth’s Annie Parker (10) and Lily Patterson during Tuesday night’s Divison I championship game at Exeter. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Bishop Guertin’s Arianna Kouchalakos (12) is pressured by Portsmouth’s Annie Parker (10) and Lily Patterson during Tuesday night’s Divison I championship game at Exeter. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Besides Parker’s five, Ruhnke and Vinciguerra each had a pair, while Raegan and Emery Lawton, plus Lily Patterson all had one each.

The Cards were going into the season with the feeling they would surpass last year’s semis ouster, and they were right. But they weren’t thinking the program’s first title game loss since 2016.

“I definitely thought big things were going to happen,” Santos said. “These kids worked their butts off the entire year, worked so hard to compete, to get better every day and to peak at the right time. Portsmouth came out ready to play and they were a little bit better than us today. That’s a lesson for next year and an opportunity to move forward.”