Members of the Souhegan girls lacrosse team can barely watch the Portsmouth Clippers get their championship medals after bowing 10-6 in the Division I title game Tuesday at Exeter's Bill Ball Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

EXETER – Sometimes there’s just no sugar coating a tough championship game loss.

“We know we followed our game plan,” Souhegan High School girls lacrosse said after the Sabers fell 10-6 to No. 1 Portsmouth for the second straight year in the Division I title game Tuesday at Bill Ball Stadium. “It sucks to come up short again.”

But unfortunately for No. 2 Souhegan (17-2) Portsmouth (19-0) remains a barrier to the title, the only team the Sabers lost to this year.

The hope was it would be different this time, especially when they jumped out to a 2-0 lead, were down just 3-2 at the half and tied 5-5 after Izzy Stevenson’s second goal with 1:53 left in the third quarter.

But for the second straight time, the Clippers had a a quick response, Ginger Vinciguerra scoring just 21 seconds later. It gave Portsmouth a 6-5 lead after three periods but also started a string of five unanswered goals, as the floodgates everyone in Black and Gold feared had opened.

“For us, the game is all about possession,” Clippers coach JoJo Kerrigan, Sbordone’s sister, said. “Once we started getting possession we started getting that spark, we started getting that fight back into us, and it was just one at a time.”

It didn’t help the Sabers that they turned the ball over three times early in the final period, one in the Clippers’ offensive zone that immediately turned into a Georgia Bouvier goal that made it 8-5. Other goals in the streak were by Elliott Blenkinsop, Vinciguerra, and Emery Lawton’s second goal that made it 10-5 with 3:38 to play. Souhegan’s Emmie Curran scored the game’s final goal with 1:29 left.

Early on the Sabers got two goals by Libby Kennedy to take a 2-0 lead, but Portsmouth’s Raegan Lawton scored a pair to make it 2-2 after one period. Then Emery Lawton tallied with 3:59 left in the half – the second quarter’s only score – for a 3-2 Clippers halftime lead.

Kennedy hit a post early in the third period but Lanai Hickman scored four minutes in to not only tie the game at 3 but end a 23:32 Saber scoreless stretch. A stretch like that can’t happen if you want to beat the Clippers, and their goaltender Sage Bussiere (six saves) didn’t make it easy, nor did the players in front of her.

“Their defense is incredible, they do an amazing zone, and it is supposed to create chaos, and they did,” Sbordone said. “But again we continued to find those openings, and those opportunities. We knew the fast break against this team was something could capitalize on, but unfortunately we couldn’t finish it.”

Souhegan’s Averie Curran tries to move against Portsmouth’s Raegan Lawton (2) during Tuesday’s Division I title game in Exeter. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The good news is Souhegan will have its scoring nucleus back of players like Kennedy, Hickman, Stevenson,etc. They lose six seniors, including goalie Molly Benson, who had four saves.

But the feeling is perhaps the Sabers can get another shot in 2027.

“That’s how we kind of ended our huddle,” Sbordone said. “Remember this feeling, because we’ve got work to do. We’ve got something to prove for next year, and it starts now.”