Bedford boys lacrosse beats Merrimack for 41st straight win

BEDFORD - Matt Guerard couldn't have been much happier with the way his Bedford High School boys lacrosse team started Wednesday's game against Merrimack.

On the other side, Tomahawks coach Brian Miller couldn't have been more disappointed.

The Bulldogs started fast, led 11-0 at halftime, and didn't allow a goal until late in the third quarter of a 14-4 win over Merrimack in Division II action.

Dan Colella led all scorers with five goals and three assists for Bedford (1-0), while Dakota Clark added three goals and Tyler Sullivan had two goals and an assist. Patrick Simpson also had a goal and three assists and Samuel Stanton, Colby Gendron and Justin Irvine each added goal.

Matt Howe made eight saves and helped lead a Bulldogs' defense that didn't give up a goal until 1:28 remained in the third quarter, and by then, Bedford had a dozen scores of its own.

"Besides stopping the ball, he's just a very good vocal leader," Guerard said. "Guys really feed of him and his energy. He's a guy that I very rarely have to worry about back there. He sees the ball so well when its coming at him. Anything outside of 10 yards, 99 percent of the time, he's going to gobble up. The goals guys score on him, they've got to get pretty close to get it by him."

Merrimack (1-1) got a goal each from Pierre Watt, Connor Cyr, Matt Brewster and John Tiano while Robby Todd made 13 saves, but the Tomahawks' early effort was not where Miller expected it to be.

"I don't think anyone who was here (Wednesday) saw what my team is really about," Miller said. "That was a different team and I'm not happy at all with how we played, but that's not us. I think maybe they had gotten a little psyched out.

"No doubt that Bedford is a good team, they have a great program with lots of numbers. What are you going to do? Part of it is just that Bedford is a good team. We're not in the same position as them. But that first half was not how we play. It just wasn't us."

Even Guerard was a little surprised at how Merrimack started the game.

"After everything that I read in the preseason, I thought that the start was going to be very competitive and a lot of aggression from last year rolling over," he said. "There wasn't much from them at all, so I was a little taken back by that. We continued to keep the foot on the gas and put goals in the net."

It took the Bulldogs less than three minutes to get on the board, and they scored three more times in the next four minutes to take a 4-0 lead with 5:33 left in the first quarter.

Merrimack managed to keep Bedford off the board through the early part of the second, but the Bulldogs added five more goals in the final 6:36 of the opening half to go up 11-0 at the break.

"I was very happy with the way we started the game," Guerard said. "Leading up to that first goal we gave up, we were playing very good on offense and defense. Our clearing game was great, our riding game was great, so I'm very happy with the start of the game."

The Tomahawks managed to outscore the Bulldogs 4-3 in the second half, but by then, it was a different game.

"At that point, the game had changed," Miller said. "Substitutions are happening, and the effort changes, and it's just a different game. We were flat, super flat, the most flat we've ever been.

"It's game two of the season. It's week four and it’s a long road. If I were to bury my head in the sand, I guess I'd be a bad coach. We go to practice (Thursday) and work hard and get back at it."