Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse comes up short against St. John's Prep (video)

NASHUA - Chris Cameron knows the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse is on the same level with some of the top programs in the region.

The Cardinals are running out of chances to show it. And just like in previous games against out-of-state competition, it looked similar Tuesday against St. John's Prep (Danvers, Mass.).

Bishop Guertin was undone by a bad stretch midgame that saw the Cardinals get outscored by five goals before they battled back for a chance to tie the game in the final seconds of a 12-11 loss to the Eagles at Nashua's Stellos Stadium.

St. John's used a 7-2 run in the second and third quarters to turn a one-goal deficit into a four-goal lead, the Eagles' largest of the game. A lot of that run was fueled by Cardinals' miscues on both ends of the field.

"They’re a very good team, and when you play very good teams, they make you pay for your mistakes," Cameron said. "That’s what they did. We haven’t been a team that’s played 48 minutes yet. They forced us into bad clears, they rode hard, and we turned it over. That sums it up."

While the Bishop Guertin coach thought his team's shot selection was better in the second half, the Cardinals struggled to clear the ball in the third quarter and the Eagles pounced.

"I think we had six failed clears in a quarter and three of them led to points," Cameron said. "We faced off well, but it was may 55-45 (percent), and they won some big ones down the stretch. They made timely saves."

Brady Dumont led the Cardinals (11-3, No. 1 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) with three goals while Connor Guibord (one assist) and Jacob Caron each had two goals. Connor Bouvier and Tim Kiely had a goal and two assists apiece and Aiden Laurendeau and Caleb Yeung each had a goal.

Matt Morrow had three goals to lead St. John's Prep (14-2) while Jimmy Ayers and Will Sawyer added two goals apiece. Jake Vana added a goal and an assist and the Eagles also got timely goals from Nate Jones and Jack Weissenburger during their run.

"We made a couple of big plays there," St. John's Prep coach John Pynchon said. "Nate Jones had an amazing goal with a really scrappy effort on the faceoff wing. He wins the ball, beats pressure with his feet and then scores the goal. That was outstanding.

"(Bishop Guertin) did a great job of responding. It was like ‘here they come.’ They got it to one (goal). Just a good, fun lacrosse game."

But the loss continued a bad trend for Bishop Guertin in its out-of-state games this season.

In the Cardinals' 11-10 overtime loss to Staples, they led 10-5 in the fourth quarter before the Wreckers went on a late-game run to tie it. Against Archbishop Stepinac, a bad second quarter saw Bishop Guertin fall behind 10-3 at halftime before a furious fourth-quarter comeback made it a three-goal game.

On Tuesday, it was a 6-5 Eagles lead going into the half, but got the lead up to 10-6 before the Cardinals were able to start the close the gap late in the third quarter.

Despite that, Bishop Guertin was still able to get within one on a goal by Kiely with 4:54 remaining. The Cardinals had a chance to tie moments later, but this time, goalie Gavin Kornitsky (six saves) was able to come up with the stop.

Bishop Guertin took a timeout with 2:04left to set up its defense, and it looked like the Cardinals got the ball back with 1:01 remaining. Initially, officials ruled that St. John's Prep had gone out of bounds with the ball, but later determined the Eagles called a timeout first and possession stayed with them.

They eventually turned it over, giving the Cardinals a final shot, but pressure from St. John's Prep got the ball out of Guibord's stick as he was preparing to shoot in the final seconds and the Eagles got the groundball.

"We didn’t have to play perfect, but you’ve got to play well," the coach said. "Good teams force you into those mistakes. We’re close to being really good, and to beat a team like that, we’ve had three chances now. We’re close, but we haven’t put it all together yet."