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Pons, King again lead Clippers

Friday, May, 03 By Jeff Hamrick

BYFIELD – In its girls lacrosse match Friday afternoon at Triton, there was some confusion as to who scored Newburyport’s 13th goal when someone on the Clipper bench shouted out “when in doubt give it to Maggie.”

In this case, it was the fifth of Maggie Pons’ six goals in Newburyport’s 16-10 victory, but that sideline exclamation would seem to be sage advice for any lacrosse occasion.

The win was Newburyport’s fourth consecutive since a rare two-game losing streak – the first of which snapped a 24-game winning skein against Cape Ann League opposition. The Clippers have scored at least 15 in each of those four victories while outscoring foes 67-25.

“I think in practice we’re doing a lot better working together on offense,” said the junior Pons, who had three assists to go with her half dozen scores. “We’re becoming more of a unit, which is really important. Those two losses were definitely disappointing, but we know we can win, and we can come together.”

Once again it was Pons (39 goals on the year) and sophomore Sam King (28) who did much of the damage, but the high-scoring duo received ample support from sophomore Liberty Palermino, who recorded her first career hat trick and added an assist. Three other Clippers scored one each, marking the second time in four games that at least six players scored for Newburyport (5-2)

“That’s really important for us,” Pons said. “We’ve been working on different plays, so it’s good to see all the options working in the games. It’s really exciting.

“Overall it’s really exciting when a lot of people contribute. That’s what’s going to take us to the next level. When we have a bunch of different options that we can look for, it opens up our offense and gives us a lot more opportunities.”

King and Ashley McIntire ignited Newburyport against Triton (6-4), with each scoring off assists from Pons in the first 53 seconds. The Vikings, however, rebounded quickly to tie on goals by Kathryn Trojan and Jamie Bell.

Newburyport then took command, scoring the next five goals and 12 of the next 14 to grab a 14-4 advantage 3:21 into the second half. Of the four unassisted goals during the 12-2 run, Pons had three of them on power moves while Callie Beauparlant had the other. The remaining eight goals were the result of solid passing.

“We have a lot of offensive threats,” Newburyport coach Katherine Batchelder said. “It’s a matter of making sure everyone’s working together. But we’re really big on assisted goals, so it’s nice to see everybody sharing the ball and becoming more of an offensive unit.”

Palermino’s third goal gave the Clippers that 10-goal lead and ignited a running clock, which didn’t last long as Triton bounced back with goals by Erin Power, Bell and Trojan to close within 14-7.

Kim and Pons restored order with Newburyport’s final two scores and a 16-7 lead with 6:04 remaining.

“We’re a completely new team this year, so it took the girls a little bit of time to get to know each other on the field and work together,” Batchelder said. “They’re responding very well, and everyone’s role is getting more defined.”

Triton capped the day’s scoring on Gianna Conte’s second goal and Paige Volpone’s first before Trojan finished off her hat trick.

“They got us down 10 in the second half where the clock was running, but we were able to turn that pretty quick,” Triton coach Stacey Beaulieu said. “We gave ourselves a chance to get back into the game and that’s all you can ask.”