Merrimack's Emily Pollard defends against Bishop Guertin's Jennica Mcginnis during Wednesday's game. For more photos, go to the Photo Album.
MERRIMACK – Both the Bishop Guertin and Merrimack High School girls lacrosse teams showed what their respective offenses are capable of doing on Wednesday.
In the end, it was the Cardinals offense that had just enough to top the Tomahawks, 13-11, in a Division II contest.
Rosie Buchanan led BG with five goals while Julia Wright and Michelle Kalil each had two goals for the Cardinals (10-2 overall, 9-2 in division). Kristi Purington, Allie Solms, Callie Santos and Caroline Westberg all had a goal each.
Merrimack got five goals from Erin Maclean while Nikki Pelletier had three goals. Emily Pollard added two goals and Kristen Correia had one goal for the Tomahawks (7-5, 5-5).
“It was a pretty hard-fought game in general by both teams,” Merrimack coach Beth Rogers said. “They have to be more aggressive, they have to want it more. It’s all about heart. I keep reminding them of that portion of the game. They have the skills, they need to have that desire and heart.”
The Tomahawks have gone through their toughest portion of the schedule, which started with a loss to Lebanon on May 3. Merrimack also had loses to Winnacunnet, the top team in the division, and Bow, currently No. 2, before play BG.
“We had one, two and three,” Rogers said of the schedule. “They’ve learned the heart of the game. There has to be another component that I can’t teach them. They have to find it in themselves.”
Merrimack held leads of 2-1 and 4-2 early, but BG closed out the first half by scoring seven unanswered goals and held a 9-4 lead at the break.
“We underestimated them,” BG coach Ron Cote said of his team, which beat Merrimack earlier this season. “That happens when we beat a team and then we play them again, we underestimate them. We think just because we’ve beaten them, they’re going to roll over. Merrimack always plays hard and they’re good.”
Merrimack's Erin Maclean takes a shot as Bishop Guertin's Jackie Geisley defends.
The Cardinals’ offense continued to dominate early in the second half, as BG built its lead up to 12-4 a little more than five minutes into the half.
But a minute later, Merrimack began chipping away at the lead. After giving up 10 straight goals, the Tomahawks got one back as Pollard scored to make it 12-5.
Merrimack scored five more goals in about 10 minutes to make it a 12-10 game, when Cote called a timeout with 8:05 remaining.
“A lot of my starters are achy and sick,” he said. “A lot of them are kind of in a hurting way. I wanted to give them some rest and not really push them. That’s when Merrimack started coming back. They got a little momentum and saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I told them I need you guys for a few more minutes out there, start warming up and moving around, you’ve got to go out and finish things off.”
Rogers took the opportunity to get her team focused.
“They reevaluated, so we reevaluated, talked about defense because they had stronger offensive players go back in,” she said. “Our girls did a great job of shutting them down.”
Merrimack got another goal, this time from Maclean, to make it a one goal game with 7:10 remaining.
But from there, the Cardinals were able to control the action. Wright made it a two-goal game at 5:40, and Merrimack had a tough time getting the ball back into BG’s end. Maclean had a scoring chance with about 20 seconds left, but her shot went just wide and time ran out.
“We’ve been a second-half team,” Rogers said. “(Wednesday) was better. We played a lot more aggressive in the first half. That was a victory unto itself.”