Bedford boys lacrosse finds plenty to build off despite loss to Hingham

BEDFORD - Things were looking so bad at the end of the first quarter Saturday for the Bedford High School boys lacrosse team, the Bulldogs were getting chirpped by Hingham's junior varsity players.

With the Harbormen holding a 6-1 lead at the end of the first frame, the group on the sideline was making on predictions on what the final score would be. Not surprising that none of them thought it'd turn into a close game.

But with more than two minutes left, Bedford had the ball with a chance to tie the game. A shot by Bennett Matthews hit off the crossbar, then off the post and came out, with Hingham (Mass.) picking up the groundball.

After a timeout by the Harbormen with 1:56 to play, it seemed like Bedford's chances were slim, but with Hingham trying to keep the ball in the box, freshman Drew Clark forced a turnover with 1:44 remaining to give the Bulldogs another shot.

In fact, Bedford took two of them on its final possession, but neither were on goal, and a turnover in the final seconds ended a 10-9 win for Hingham.

While the loss was frustrating for the Bulldogs (3-1, No. 3 in the New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center/NHHSSports Coaches Poll), there were a lot of positives that they took from the game.

“I thought they stepped up when they needed to,” Bedford coach Steve Gaudreau said. “We felt like that was a game that we had in our grasp. We know we’re not going to go through a game mistake free, so for us, it’s just finding a way to limit the mistakes that lead to turnovers, that potentially lead to goals.”

Hingham scored seven of its goals in unettled sitiations, including four of those six first-quarter goals, and a lot of those situations were because of turnovers.

“Obviously, there’s stuff to clean up, like some of the turnovers,” Matthews said. “But that’s some growing pains that are going to come with a young team. But we have trust in our young guys, like Drew Clark, who was on the No. 1 guy for them at the end of the game and had two nasty takeaway checks.

“We’re not happy with a loss, but just being able to come out here, compete, and then rallying from down a couple was huge for us and huge for our morale throughout the game.”

One of the players who played a key role in getting Bedford back in the game wasn't even on the field until those jayvee players started their prognostications was junior Cobe Rubin.

Rubin scored the Bulldogs' first goal with under 30 seconds left in the first quarter, then tacked on two more in the second to help Bedford close the gap to 6-4 at halftime. He finished the day with four goals, which came a day after he'd had a goal and an assist in a win over Londonderry.

“He stepped up when we needed him and we trust him,” Matthews said. “I don’t think it’s excepted that (Rubin) comes in and has four goals against one of the top teams in Massachusetts, but he played his role. He went out there and killed it and took advantage of his opportunities.”

The Bulldogs have already been hit with injuries, with senior midfielder Brody Helton, junior attackman John Purnell and sophomore LSM Teddy LaPointe all out, so those opportunities to step up have been there for everyone.

“Step up and play my hardest, really,” Rubin said of his mindset Saturday. “We’ve got good guys on this team and everyone works together well. Our team chemistry is really good, so I just keep trying my hardest out there and keep doing what coach tells me.”

While it may not have looked like it early on, Rubin turned into a tough matchup for some of Hingham's bigger defenders, using his quickness to get himself open.

“He gets a chance and finds his way,” Gaudreau said. “He’s a super quick kid. We have kids like Cobe all over our roster that are just waiting to step up, and some of our upperclassmen, Bennett being one of them, are helping them and doing a really good job. It’s fun to see.”

At the other end, it was one of those upperclassmen stepping up to keep the defense together and help allow for the comeback to happen. Senior goalie Ethan Conn recorded 20 saves for the Bulldogs, including a handful in the fourth quarter that kept things from getting away from Bedford.

“We expect a lot from him, as he’s been starting the past three years,” Matthews said of Conn. “We know what he’s capable of, we play against him in practice every day, and we know he goes out there and kills it every single time. I feel like we didn’t help him out in the beginning, but he can make saves the best of anyone.”

Conn saw a change amongst the guys on defense, as they started to come together more as the game wore on.

“We really turned that around,” he said. “It was very much, get behind the guy next to you and be like we’re doing this together. We win and lose together. It just turns into that. Fourth quarter, the defense was forcing the shots to be not as good as that first half, and it just made it a little easier for me to find the ball coming out of the stick.”

With some young players seeing the field on defense, Gaudreau feels his senior goalie is just the right guy to have leading them on that end.

“He’s not the most vocal kid, but he’s the right kid to have leading this group of what’s really mostly junior and freshman,” the coach said. “He’s doing a tremendous job.”

Bedford followed up the loss with a 14-7 win over Nashua South on Monday and will host Manchester at 7 p.m. Wednesday before three challenging road games during April vacation. The Bulldogs are at Windham, then at Exeter, and then go south of the border to face Westford (Mass.) Academy.