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Larivee, Souhegan hand Bishop Guertin its first loss

NASHUA – Mickenzie Larviee could tell before Friday’s game that something was different with the Souhegan High School girls lacrosse team.

The Sabers had an extra jump in their step during warmups, and Larivee helped them carry it over into their game against Bishop Guertin. The Souhegan senior scored seven her game-high nine goals during an 11-2 run that helped turn a tie game into a 21-9 win for the Sabers at Rivier University in Nashua.

Madison Learned added six goals and three assists for Souhegan (9-2 in Division I), and she and Larivee combined for five more goals (15) than the Cardinals previous season high in goals allowed (10).

“In the warmup, I felt it through the team, that our energy was up,” Larivee said. “That pumped me up a lot. I just got open, I guess.”

It was a fire that Souhegan coach Maren Petropulos had yet to see from Larivee.

“I’ve never seen that intensity in her eyes,” she said. “We’ve struggled with a few things, but this past week, we’ve had great practices and the captains have really stepped up and taken control of pieces of practices.”

Jesse Jay added four goals and assist for the Sabers, while Brittany Ireland had a goal and an assist and Katie Almeida also scored. Jocelyn Donohue had two assists and Meaghan Allard and Allie Chapman also had an assist each.

Bishop Guertin (9-1 in Division II) got seven goals from Averi Farhat, but only two other players scored, as Kristin Cameron (goal, four assists) and Bryn Carroll (goal, four draw controls) also got on the board.

The Cardinals took the lead out of the gate, scoring on their first two shots to take a 2-0 lead 1:09 into the game. But Souhegan came right back, scoring three straight to take a 3-2 lead just 1:38 later.

The teams then traded goals until a score by Farhat knotted things at 4 with 14:30 left in the first half.

From there, Souhegan was able to control almost every draw and the Sabers’ attack took over.

“I think this was a game where you could see that whoever had possession was going to do the job on attack,” Bishop Guertin coach Mandy Rogers said. “When we were not getting possession on the draws, their attack is just too explosive.”

Winning draws and maintaining possession are things that the Sabers have been working on a lot in practice.

“The whole entire team, we’ve been working harder to get the draw,” Petropulos said. “We wanted to make sure we continued getting the draws and I thought we did a good job taking care of the ball.”

The Cardinals also lost senior captain Caley Prunier to an apparent left knee injury midway through the first half.

“Caley got hurt and she’s a really big part of our attack,” Farhat said. “It was hard to see her get hurt because she is crucial.”

Souhegan is off until hosting Concord on Wednesday, but then heads to Exeter on Friday.