Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse makes adjustments to get win over Xaverian Brothers (video)

NASHUA - The Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team knew Tuesday night's game was going to be different than its first three of the season.

With Xaverian Brothers, of Westwood, Mass., coming to town, the Cardinals were hosting an out-of-state game at Stellos Stadium for the first time in almost three years. And for just about every player on the roster, it was the first time taking on that challenge on their home turf.

After battling that excitement, and figuring out how to play a team that was trying to slow the tempo down, Bishop Guertin pulled away in the second half and didn't give in on defense when Xaverian made a late push to take a 9-6 win.

"We were so revved up," Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. "We had four shots that we’re one-on-one that should be finished 90 percent of the time, and I think that got their goalie going a little bit. Something about getting hit gives goalies confidence. This is a team, we practiced terrible (Monday), but they were just ready for this."

Connor Bouvier had three goals for the Cardinals (4-0, No. 1 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll), while Aiden Laurendeau had two goals and an assist and Tim Kiely had a goal and two assists. Connor Guibord, Carter Jozokos and Caleb Yeung also had a goal apiece while Brady Dumont and Quinn Cepiel had two assists each. Zach Connerty finished with eight saves.

Xaverian (4-2) got two goals and an assist from Jake Gilbert while Ben Ryan also had two goals and Dante Mariani and Cole Jelte had a goal each. Griffin Ready made nine saves for the Hawks, four of which came in the first quarter.

But although Xaverian was able to possess the ball for stretches, the Hawks struggled at times to get free for shots and finished the game with just 22 attempts.

"Credit the defense as well," Xaverian coach Daggett Morse said. "The first two dodgers were on our hands, and our guys know we need a shot, but 14 yards on that goalie, with your hands not free, he’s catching it. They tried to muscle through it as best they could.

"You know it’s going to be a great test. You don’t make the drive to play someone who can’t whistle and walk. It’s exactly why we do it."

After scoring 20 goals per game in its first three contests, Bishop Guertin without a goal midway through the first quarter, and in the first 12 minutes, the Cardinals put less than half of their 13 shots on goal. A big reason for that was Xaverian's ability to keep Bishop Guertin from getting out in transition.

"That’s our game, is transition offense," Cameron said. "Early on, we do a lot of pass-down, pick-downs, which involves a screen and we got called for like four illegal screens. We’ve been preaching to the kids all the time about getting set. Those are turnovers which lead to possessions for them going the other way."

Ryan broke the scoreless tie with a goal that took officials a moment to call a goal when his shot found a hole in the bottom corner of the net. That put the Hawks up 1-0 with 7:45 left in the first quarter, but the Cardinals didn't waste any time tying it up.

JJ Murphy won the faceoff, and just 11 seconds later, Laurendeau scored, and Bouvier added his first goal 2:12 after that, giving Bishop Guertin a 2-1 lead it would take into the second quarter.

The Hawks tied it at 2 on Gilbert's first goal with 7:46 left in the half, and Murphy again won the faceoff, but while Bishop Guertin was able to maintain possession, shots weren't on goal. It looked like the Cardinals might lose possession when there was a scrum in front of the net for a groundball, but Guibord was able to scoop it up and put it in the net as he was being knocked to the ground.

Gilbert tied it back up 23 seconds later with his second goal, but Yeung put the Cardinals up for good with his goal 37 seconds after that. Bouvier added another goal with 38.1 to go before halftime, giving Bishop Guertin a 5-3 lead at the break.

"Connor Bouvier played really well for us," Cameron said. "Not just time-and-room shooter, but he got down the alley. (Gilbert) ran by us twice and we made an adjustment, and I don’t think he scored in the second half."

Mariani scored just over two minutes into the third quarter to make it a one-goal game and neither team was able to do much for most of the next seven-plus minutes. The Hawks came close to tying it, but a save by Connerty on a rising shot kept it 5-4.

Jozokos scored with 2:11 remaining in the quarter to break the scoreless drought and Bouvier tacked on a goal with 48 seconds to go in the third to make it 7-4. Kiely found the back of the net 24 seconds into the fourth quarter to give the Cardinals' their largest lead.

"That game got really scrappy, and I was going to take a timeout to settle us down, but they were just as scrappy," Cameron said. "I thought OK let’s see where this thing goes. Then we got to 7-4 to close out that quarter and that was key."

Xaverian was able to get within three goals twice in the fourth quarter, including on Ryan's second goal with 2:48 remaining, but the Hawks couldn't generate much with their opportunities.

"A little bit of fatigue for sure," Morse said. "They hit a couple of shots, one was in the pocket in the low corner, one was on the pipe and in on the off-stick hip side. Great players are going to make great shots. They made it through tryouts, too.

"We needed to do a better job canning our opportunities. I thought we played better offense than the scoreboard showed through two-and-a-half quarters. We can’t rely on a couple of guys. We need everyone to hit shots."