Bedford boys lacrosse comes alive in third quarter to beat Souhegan (video)

AMHERST - The Bedford and Souhegan high school boys lacrosse teams were playing for two different things Monday night.

One had a chance to take a step closer to wrapping up a home playoff game, while the other was playing for pride. Through the game's first 24 minutes, it was hard to tell which was which.

After being reminded what was at stake at halftime, the Bulldogs came to life in the third quarter, exploding for eight goals on the way to a 15-7 win over Souhegan in Division I action.

Kyle Fink, Devin LaFrance and Dawson Clark each scored three goals as Bedford (11-6) won for the fifth time in its last six games. Jack Cusack and Ryan Bleakley added two goals each and Ryan Toscano and Gannon Lowrie also scored.

"We came out flat and dug ourselves a 3-1 hole," Bedford coach Matt Guerard said. "It doesn’t matter how many guys the other team is missing, when you come out with no energy, you’re going to find yourself trailing and we did.

"Second half, we came out guns blazing and scored eight goals in the third quarter. I want that type of effort at the beginning of the game, not 24 minutes later. Against a better offensive team, we’re going to dig a hole."

The Bulldogs did find themselves in a hole in the first quarter. After Cusack got the game's first goal with 8:21 left in the opening frame, Souhegan (5-11) answered right off the faceoff, as Tyler Hall (three goals) raced down the field and tied the game 10 seconds after Cusack's score.

Jaxon Weisberg (two goals) put the Sabers up 2-1 with his first goal with 6:21 to go in the first and Hall scored again off the faceoff, this time just eight seconds later for a 3-1 lead.

Toscano made it a 3-2 game just before the end of the quarter and Bedford scored three unanswered goals - two from Fink - in the second to take a 5-3 lead at halftime. But the Bulldogs didn't feel good about the way the game was going to that point.

"Our warmup was very lethargic," Fink said. "We weren’t mentally there, but when we got into the third quarter, we started clicking. We needed that third quarter, that boost. Going into halftime, we were still flat, but after coach talked to us, we got everything in line. Devin got that first goal and it definitely ramped everyone’s energy up."

LaFrance scored 35 seconds into the second half and Hall answered again less than a minute later to make it a two-goal game again.

And that's when Bedford's offense took over. LaFrance got his second goal of the quarter with 9:39 left in the third, starting the Bulldogs on a 5-0 run over a span of 3:02 that gave them an 11-4 lead.

"I just said you’ve got to play every possession like it’s your last possession," Guerard said. "Every single one. You’ve got to give a hundred percent effort all the time no matter what it is, whether it’s a groundball, or a shot, or a pass. You’ve got play like it’s your last one. That’s pretty much what I told them. We came out a completely different team."

Bedford took a 13-5 lead into the fourth quarter and stretched it to as many as 10 goals before Souhegan was able to score a pair in the final minutes.

The loss was the 10th in the last 12 games for the Sabers and mathematically eliminated them from the postseason.