Duxbury’s one-year claim on the MIAA Division II State lacrosse title expired in the semifinals on Friday afternoon at Chandler Field in Duxbury when the Lady Dragons fell victim to Norwell, 19-11.

Coach Sue Paull’s squad was never really in the contest, as the Clippers were superior in every phase of the game, and never let the Lady Dragons get untracked.{sidebar id=4}

“Norwell was the better team today,” said Paull. “They came here to play and they beat us to groundballs and most of the draws. They are a very disciplined team and they moved the ball at will against us.”

In a game where possession is everything, Norwell hoarded the ball throughout the afternoon and made life miserable for Duxbury goalie Stephanie Hoomis, who faced 26 shots.

If they weren’t winning face-offs, they were winning groundballs and 50/50 balls right out of the box, jumping all over Duxbury to take a 4-0 lead just over four minutes into the game.{sidebar id=1}

A Jill Caramello goal finally broke the Norwell scoring streak at the 20:06 mark, but it only interrupted the Clipper’s offense that would see Kate MacDonald, Kara O’Connell, and Molly Cox score consecutive goals for a 7-1 lead.

Caramello made it 7-2 with 14 minutes left in the half when she picked off a clearing pass by Norwell goaltender Justine Sullivan and fired it into an empty net, while Duxbury’s Katie Griffin matched a Rose O’Connell goal to make it 8-3 with 13:08 showing on the clock.

After the Clippers expanded their lead to 10-3, Erin Levesque and Meg Muncey responded by cutting the lead to 10-5.

A Rose O’Connell goal made it 11-5 with 5:49 remaining, prompting Paull to go to her bench for sophomore goalie Julia Hannon in an effort to get her defense to focus in its own end.

While the Lady Dragons were hopeful to cut the deficit before halftime, they did little to keep Norwell from putting the game away in the final two minutes.

MacDonald (2), Cox, and Olivia Huie beat Hoomis, giving the Clippers an insurmountable 16-6 halftime lead, and leaving Paull to wonder at halftime what went wrong.

“We were getting stuck in a lot of double and triple teams and were unable to do anything about it,” said Paull. “We needed to move the ball quicker, and when we did we’d score.”

 Duxbury needed someone to step up and shoulder the offensive load in the second half, and the call went out to Muncey, who scored all five Duxbury goals with plenty of help from senior captain Trish Babson.

While Muncey’s efforts did pump up the crowd, it did little to affect the Clippers, who scored three goals of their own and held onto the ball for the final four minutes while Duxbury watched their championship crown slip away.

“One of our goals was to come out hard and get a jump on them,” said Norwell Coach Jen Kent. “Duxbury is a great team and they can score four or five goals right away. But defensively we were in great shape today. Our kids worked hard all week and we got great senior leadership. It’s a credit to all of them.”

The game marked the end of the high school lacrosse careers of senior captains Levesque and Babson, along with classmates Caramello, Colleen Connolly, Hayley Bunnell, Dani DiCarlo, and Ally Nee.{sidebar id=6}