Bishop Guertin looks to bounce back with trip to Dover

The Bishop Guertin High School football team has played five games this season, winning three and losing two.

While that record doesn’t look good on paper, it is somewhat deceiving.

The two losses are against teams from outside of the Cardinals’ division. Never mind that BG lost those games by a combined 58-0, neither one of them counts toward the Division II playoffs.

In games that do count, the Cardinals are 3-0 and have won by an average of almost 24 points.

BG enters Friday night’s game at Dover (4-0 in the division) feeling good about where it is, despite being shut out by Catholic Memorial last week. The Cardinals and Green Wave kickoff at 7 p.m.

“We tried to put it right behind us,” BG coach Travis Cote said. “Because it wasn’t a league game, it wasn’t really critical as far as what happens playoff-wise. Something like that can be difficult to overcome, but we tried not to talk about it too much and let it go. “

The Cardinals needed to focus their attention on the Green Wave right away, and doing so shouldn’t be too hard. Dover was the only division team to hand BG a loss last year, topping the Cardinals 7-0 on their home turf.

This year, Dover enters the game having not allowed a point since a 27-21 win over Merrimack on Sept. 9. Cote doesn’t anticipate that streak will continue, nor does he see his team being held off the scoreboard for a third straight game.

“I don’t anticipate that we’ll be shut out this week,” he said. “They’ve got some good kids over there. Their defensive linemen are all seniors. We just have to worry about what we can worry about and take care of our offense.”

The BG offense will get a boost with the return of quarterback Bob Fahey, and after some time adjusting to a new scheme, the Cardinals are starting to move fluidly in the offense.

“I think we’re finally settled into things on both sides of the ball,” Cote said. “Now it comes down to executing and outplaying your opponent.

“We’ve talked about the importance of this game in practice. The winner of this game is on top by themselves for now.”