Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse hangs on for win over Boston College High

BOSTON - With the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team gathered around him, Chris Cameron reminded the Cardinals of one of the oldest - and perhaps accurate - clichés in sports.

A win is a win, no matter what it looks like. And against a team like Boston College High, it looks pretty good.

So despite watching the Eagles rally twice in the second half, including in the final three minutes of the game, the Cardinals' coach was pleased to see Bishop Guertin hang on for a 12-9 win over BC High on Saturday.

The Cardinals led by five goals at halftime, but the Eagles cut that lead to three in the third quarter. The Bishop Guertin lead grew to six goals with 3:44 left in the game, but BC High scored three times in a span of 2:06 to cut the lead in half.

But the Cardinals were able to win the final faceoff of the game, and after the Eagles were called for a penalty with under a minute to play, Bishop Guertin was able to run out the clock.

"We were up 8-3 at the half and I didn’t think we had played our best," Cameron said. "Sometimes good teams will make you make mistakes, and turnovers hurt us a lot. Offensively, we could score when we had the ball. We won faceoffs, but they went to an aggressive ride and we turned it over time and time again. I think that we lost our composure. I think we can certainly get better."

The dozen goals allowed by BC High is the most since it gave up 12 in a loss to Xaverian Brothers on April 12, 2016. Sean Cameron led the Cardinals (5-0) with four goals and two assists while Ben Abladian had two goals and an assist and Kyle Fisher added two goals.

Sam Prunier, Brennan McInnis and Drew Hailey each had a goal and an assist and Alex Koutsos also had a goal, while Brian Cameron had five assists, as the Eagles (5-2) focused on keeping the Bishop Guertin senior from finding the back of the net.

"We had a defensive game plan we tried to work against (Cameron)," BC High coach Steve Lydon said. "We tried to limit him and I think we did a good job of that, but the stuff behind it failed. Their shooters capitalized on scoring opportunities."

With the Eagles paying extra attention to Brian Cameron, it allowed the Cardinals' other players to find open space.

"We knew when Brian has the ball, I don’t want to say it was a triple team, but he had two guys waiting at the corner," Chris Cameron said. "He had to draw the two and then find the skip lane. That’s what we were going to come from. If we didn’t have that, we were going to attack their short sticks. I thought we did a good job of that."

The game was scoreless until Prunier scored with 3:26 left in the first quarter to give Bishop Guertin the lead, and Fisher got his first goal off a turnover with 1:47 left in the first to make it 2-0. Carter Ford answered for the Eagles, but Abladian netted his first of the game with 11.2 seconds left to make it 3-1 going into the second.

BC High controlled possession for the early part of the second quarter, but only broke through once, making it 3-2 with 9:38 left until halftime. Bishop Guertin's defense, led by goalie James Heitmiller (14 saves), came up big during that stretch, and throughout the second half.

"James made some great saves," Chris Cameron said. "When you give them two, three, four chances at it each time, it’s going to come back and burn you. That’s what was happening, bad clears. That’s been our story. We’re working on, but we have to continue working on it."

A 4-0 run by the Cardinals in the second quarter helped them take an 8-3 lead into halftime, but BC High got goals from Aidan Carroll and Cole Willett in the third quarter to make it a three-goal game. The Eagles were in line for more when Bishop Guertin went down two men with 5:21 left in the quarter, but the Cardinals killed off the penalties and Sean Cameron scored late in the quarter to make it 9-5.

Hailey scored early in the fourth to make it 10-5, and after a BC High goal, Sean Cameron added two more goals, the second of which made it 12-6 with 3:44 to play.

But the Eagles weren't done, getting goals from Carroll and Charlie Pyne 27 seconds apart to cut the lead to 12-8 with 2:42 to go. After a Bishop Guertin penalty, Carroll scored again with 1:03 left to made it a three-goal game, but the Cardinals won the faceoff and were able to run out the clock after a penalty on the Eagles.

"I think what we did in the second half was more indicative of what we want to be," Lydon said. They were improved defensively, and they were exceptional in the goal, especially in the second half.

"We were going to have to make all of our possessions count. I think we threw too many away in the first and didn’t get the stops we needed. We let the momentum get away from us in the second quarter."