Amber Beal turns on a defender during a regular season game. Beal and her Lady General teammates posted their first-ever postseason victory when they upset No.8 Kearsarge, 15-9, on May 30. (Goffstown News/Bruce Preston)

By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

John Stark girls lacrosse coach Lorraine Connell started the 2006 season with only a handful of defensemen and even less lacrosse experience. She ended it at the helm of the most successful team in program history.

When Connell, a rookie lacrosse coach who never played the sport, agreed to take over the fledgling program, she inherited a team that was 90 percent attack players and soon without a goalie; Lori Hannifan was sidelined with a shoulder injury and mononucleosis.

So Connell mixed things up, moving attackers and middies like Nicole Duquette and Kelsey Wells back on defense and defensemen Rachel Quimby and Kali Ward into net. That left the scoring load on the remaining attackers, including senior Leigh Warner.

The recipe was risky. In the end, it was successful. Acclimated to their new positions, the Generals compiled a program-best 6-9 record to earn the No. 9 seed in the Division III tournament.

Once there, they upset No. 8 Kearsarge in a 15-9 first-round victory to clinch their first-ever postseason win and highest offensive output on the year.

John Stark then earned a moral victory in a 12-9 loss to No. 1 Con-Val in the next round, keeping pace with the division’s best team despite losing two defensemen to injury prior to the game.

“Every game we played, I felt we could hang with every single team,” Connell said. “We’re a fast team, we’ve got a lot of endurance, we’ve got a lot of skill, and I really think we were a threat.”

Leading that charge were Duquette and Wells ­ two aggressive defenders who helped limit seven opponents to single-digit scoring ­ and Warner, who finished second on the school’s all-time goals-scored list, just five shy of the leader.

Quimby, a freshman and Ward, a sophomore, came to split time as the year progressed, rarely skipping a beat. In Quimby’s first career start in net, she held Hollis-Brookline -- a future semifinal team -- to just one first-half goal in an eventual 8-5 loss.

With only two seniors leaving ­ Warner and fellow attack Tracey Coolidge ­ it’s only made next year more promising, though Connell is unsure if she can commit to another season of coaching.

“I’ve gained a lot of experience and knowledge so far,” said Connell, also the school’s volleyball coach and a chemistry teacher. “But they could go so much farther if they had somebody who knew lacrosse.”