Big second half lifts Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse over Pinkerton in D1 title game

EXETER – The game plan for the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team going into Saturday’s Division I final wasn’t anything the coaching staff put together in the last few days.

The Cardinals began figuring out how they’d attack Pinkerton Academy if they got a second chance the day after losing the first time around.

By the time the championship game rolled around, Bishop Guertin was well versed and ready to execute.

After a back-and-forth first half, the No. 2 Cardinals dictated pace and exploded on offense while holding No. 1 Pinkerton scoreless in the second half of an 11-6 victory at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

The win gives Bishop Guertin back-to-back championships and seven titles in the last eight years. Five of those titles, including the four most recent, have come at the expense of the Astros.

“You always game plan it and that was the game plan,” Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. “When we lost (to Pinkerton on May 1), we gave it our best shot, but we saw how they were defending Brian (Cameron) and we said we’ve got to do a lot of things differently.

“Basically, we couldn’t have people standing around watching. We had to have movement off the ball. He was able to pick it apart when they were doubling. Sometimes we ran sets when they weren’t able to double right away, and that’s when he was able to dodge. That was our offense. We started working on that May 2.”

Brian Cameron finished with three goals and an assist and Sean Cameron also scored three goals, as the Cardinals (18-2) outscored the Astros 6-0 in the second half. Brennan McInnis also had two goals while Drew Hailey (assist), Sam Prunier and Ben Abladian had a goal apiece.

Colin Casey made six saves and Christian Trahan won 13 of 21 faceoffs, including six of eight after halftime, to help keep the ball away from Pinkerton (19-2).

The Astros got three goals and two assists from Ryan Auger while Chris Valentine had two goals and Chad Teresky added one. Alex Sturgess made eight saves.

“There wasn’t a lot that went well for us,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “We didn’t have the possession that we had last time. We didn’t do well on faceoffs the whole game, where as last time, we did. We weren’t able to ride anywhere near to the effectiveness that we did, so they were able to clear the ball.

“We were able to match them goal for goal in the first half, which is a credit to our offense. But in the second half, we didn’t seem to generate quality shots. More importantly, they found seems in our defense. They didn’t do that last time.”

Bishop Guertin took a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on its first two shots of the game, with Brian Cameron scoring 30 seconds in and Sean Cameron adding his first 35 seconds later.

But Pinkerton responded with a 3-0 run to take the lead, and after the Cardinals tied it, the Astros went on a 3-1 run to go up 6-4 with 6:11 left in the first half. Trahan won the ensuing faceoff and Bishop Guertin got a goal from McInnis to make it 6-5 just 1:03 later, and that’s where it stood at halftime.

“First two shots are goals, and it doesn’t look good, but we were able to generate three after that and go back and forth,” O’Reilly said. “I could tell even at halftime, we were hanging on and we weren’t getting the possession that we like to have.”

The Astros won the faceoff to open the second half, but Casey stopped their first shot, and McInnis tied the game at 6 with 8:22 to go in the third. The Cardinals won the ensuing faceoff and Brian Cameron gave Bishop Guertin the lead for good just 34 seconds later.

After a defensive stand, Kyle Fisher got out in transition for Bishop Guertin and found Prunier, who scored as he fell to the ground to make it 8-6 with 6:17 to go in the third. Trahan won another faceoff and this time it was Sean Cameron who scored, making it 9-6 with 5:44 to go in the quarter, forcing Pinkerton to take a timeout.

“I was looking over at Coach O’Reilly because he’s one of the best at using his timeouts and I knew he had to,” Chris Cameron said. “In the second half, when they got behind and had to play fast, it’s hard for a slow team to play fast. We knew it was so important for us to get a lead.”

Hailey added a goal for the Cardinals before the end of the third to make it 10-6 and Sean Cameron had the lone goal of the fourth to finish out the scoring.

“It just caught up to us,” O’Reilly said. “When they made the run, then all of a sudden, you have to stop pushing out. If you’re not pushing out, then you don’t get the ball. They beat us pretty much in all phases in the game, especially in the second half.”