Another fast start enough as Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse holds off Cohasset (video)
NASHUA - The Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team has had no problem getting up for its toughest opponents this season.
It's once the teams switch ends when the problems have started for the Cardinals.
After taking the lead in the first quarter Saturday against Cohasset (Mass.), Bishop Guertin went more than 19 minutes without a goal as the Skippers got back into the game. The Cardinals were able to wear down the Cohasset defense in the fourth quarter and pulled away late for a 9-5 win at Rivier University.
Tim Hinrichs led Bishop Guertin (13-1) with three goals and Garret Bozek also scored twice, but the Cardinals struggled against the Skippers' defense in the second and third quarters.
It's the second game in a row where a fast start has been negated by a slow middle of the game, as Bishop Guertin started off strong Thursday against Bedford only to see the Bulldogs come back to make it a close game in the fourth.
"This team, we just come out ready to play," Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. "Before we knew it, it was 3-0, and again, all of a sudden ... I don't want to say we got flat, but we stopped doing what we're supposed to do. Against Bedford, we had the opportunities. We didn't have the opportunities (Saturday). We had the ball a lot, but these guys played really, really good defense."
A lot of that good defense came in the second quarter, when Cohasset scored twice to make it a 3-2 game and then killed off a two-minute, locked-in situation.
"Killing a locked-in penalty is always a tough one, but it gasses you," Cohasset coach James Beaudoin said. "It came back in the fourth when they started getting their goals. That two minutes, in the sun, that's really where that came from, as our guys got gassed. They just have to stand and move the ball while our guys have to run around for two minutes."
The Cardinals had six shots on that man-up, only one of which was on goal.
"We had an open net we missed, and then we don't score on the two-minute man-up, and you can start to hear their bench believing in themselves," Cameron said. "That was a huge part of the game. That scared me because when you're locked in for two minutes, and you're winning faceoffs like we were, it's make-it, take-it. I was thinking 'let's get three (goals) here' but we didn't click on that."
It was more of the same for Bishop Guertin in the first five-plus minutes of the third quarter when Michael O'Reilly was able to keep the ball alive for the Cardinals behind the Cohasset goal following a save by goalie Mason Fitzgerald (10 saves).
The ball eventually came around to Brennan McInnis, and he ripped a shot past Fitzgerald that ended Bishop Guertin's scoring drought. Hinrichs added a man-up goal with 2:46 left in the third to give the Cardinals a 5-2 lead, but the Skippers scored with 28.7 seconds left in the quarter to make it a two-goal game.
Noah Froio cut the lead to 5-4 just 1:06 into the fourth quarter for Cohasset, but Bishop Guertin went back up two on a goal by Bozek. The Cardinals had a chance for more but a save by Fitzgerald started a breakout the other way, leading to a goal that made it 6-5 with 8:20 to play.
Bishop Guertin's Cam Hult was called for an unnecessary hit on the goal, giving Cohasset the ball a man-up and down just one.
But after working the ball around, the Skippers turned it over, and after the penalty had expired, Charlie O'Brien (two assist) scored to make it 7-5 with 7:08 to go.
"One-goal (game) in the fourth quarter against them, it was definitely an opportunity, but the passes just weren't on," Beaudoin said. "Their defense was really making it difficult to get our dodgers to get a move. They slide really well and it was tough to beat them."
The Cardinals got two more goals in the final four minutes to put the Skippers away.
"We just wore them out a little bit," Cameron said. "They played so compact and then we just said we’re going to take some time and stretch it a little bit."
