Adjustment on the draw sets up Bishop Guertin girls lacrosse for comeback against Bedford (video)

BEDFORD - The Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team went into halftime of Saturday's Division I semifinal in a spot it hasn't been much this season.

The Cardinals not only trailed Bedford by two goals, but they'd watched the Bulldogs storm back from a four-goal deficit with a 6-0 run in just over 10 minutes to take a 7-5 lead at the break.

A big reason for that swing was on the draw control, where Bedford was 9 of 13 in the first half, including 5 of 7 during its late run. Bishop Guertin needed to make a change in the second half and a suggestion came from a player who had been taking many of the draws in the first half.

"When we don’t have some of our best players have the best day of their lives, and you have enough depth, the others rise," Bishop Guertin coach Leslie Why said. "Katie Campel on the draw … Rylee (Bouvier) said it’s not working, we need Katie to give it a shot and we did, and it worked."

Bishop Guertin won 4 of 6 draws to start the second half, and got the ball on another after a yellow card on Bedford, and the Cardinals went on a 6-1 run to retake the lead and held off the Bulldogs for an 11-9 win. That sends Bishop Guertin to its third-straight D1 final, where it will face Pinkerton at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Exeter High School.

While Bedford finished with a 13-8 advantage on the draw, the adjustment Bishop Guertin made neutralized the Bulldogs' ability to get ground balls and score quickly off them, which is what happened late in the first half.

"It comes down to possession, it always does. It either is draws or ground balls, or some kind of combination of the two," Why said. "We have our third draw specialist and she goes in. She hasn’t been taking the draw because we were using her as a flyer on offense. She’s got the height and the skills. As long as we can get the ball in the air, we’re going to be good."

When she heard of the change, Campel was prepared for the opportunity.

"I think I was just ready to go from the start," she said. "It doesn’t matter the rotation, you just have to go out and change the momentum for your team. I couldn’t have done it without the circle and we had some great saves on defense. I think keeping a good, strong mental game and thinking we’ve got it the whole way (helped)."

Bouvier finished with four goals for the Cardinals (18-0) and Lindsey Hult added three, while Madison Keating had two goals, coming back-to-back in the second half to tie the game at 8 and the put Bishop Guertin up 9-8 with 13:56 left to play. Stephanie Reap and Nat Coutu each had a goal and an assist and Makenna Reekie made five saves, including two early in the first half that helped the Cardinals go on their run.

Bedford (15-3) got three goals each from Sydney Grogan and Regan O'Brien while Olivia Matthews had two goals and an assist and Eliana Enners had a goal and three assists. Abigail Weidner made for saves for the Bulldogs.

The Cardinals got goals from Bouvier and Hult in the game's first five minutes to take a 2-0 lead, but O'Brien got the Bulldogs on the board with 18:44 left in the half. Bishop Guertin answered with goals by Coutu and Hult just 33 seconds apart to make it 4-1 and Bouvier scored with 11:15 remaining until halftime to make it 5-1 and force Bedford to take a timeout.

Out of the timeout, Grogan and Matthews scored 42 seconds apart to cut the lead to two and O'Brien scored her second goal with 8:04 to play in the half to make it 5-4 and get the Cardinals to use a timeout.

Bedford kept coming, as Enners scored to tie the game at 5, and Matthews and Grogan added goals in the final 1:32 to give the Bulldogs a 7-5 lead at the half.

"I don’t think it was scary because I think this team has so much depth, so much fire," Campel said. "Keeping up momentum and playing as a team was key.

"It’s all about the mind game. It’s how you step out on that field. You determine which way the ball is going to go. You determine who is going to get possession and who is going to fight for it. Who wants it more."