Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse opens season with win over Mercer Island

NASHUA - Chris Cameron had an idea on how to figure out how good the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team's first opponent might be.

Before Monday's game against Mercer Island (Wash.), the Cardinals coach pored over scores from out West, seeing who had already beaten who and how the Islanders had done against some of those teams.

Cameron thought his team would be ready to play against tough competition right out of the gate, but he had no idea just how ready the Cardinals were.

Bishop Guertin used a four-goal run in a little more than a minute to gain momentum in the first quarter, and had an answer for ever Mercer Island goal in the second half as the Cardinals opened the season with a 16-8 win at Stellos Stadium.

Brian Cameron had four goals and five assists and Sean Cameron scored all four of his goals in the first half, and added two assists, as Bishop Guertin (1-0) led 9-3 at halftime.

"I didn’t know what to expect because we weren’t at that level (in practice) and I was thinking we were just waiting, that they’ve been ready for so long, and that’s what it was," Chris Cameron said. "We were the team that I want us to be in the first half. (Mercer Island) is a really good team.

"This was one we were looking forward to. I’m looking at scores and these guys are legit. There’s a few crossover games where you can find a transitive property. I didn’t see any film. Sometimes you just come out and play."

Sam Prunier added two goals for the Cardinals while Drew Hailey had a goal and three assists and Joey Lupo and Brennan McInnis had a goal and an assist apiece. Luke Romanek, Kyle Fisher and Ben Abladian also had a goal each while James Heitmiller made 14 saves and Romanek was 13 of 18 on faceoffs.

Mercer Island (9-2) got two goals and an assist from Hunter Johnson while Donnie Howard had a goal and an assist and Tynan Drayton made 16 saves.

"We were very impressed with BG, especially since it was their first game," Mercer Island coach Ian O'Hearn said. "They were in midseason form, they moved the ball really well and they’ve got a lot of good shooters.

"We knew the Cameron brothers, we knew who their guys were. It just didn’t matter, they were that good. Whatever we were trying to do to them, they were able to counter it. We did our research and everything we found was true, they were just better."

Bishop Guertin won the opening faceoff and put a couple of shots on goal, but Drayton came up with three early saves and was able to clear the ball on the last one. The Islanders were able to score on their first shot at the other end to take a 1-0 lead just 1:49 into the game, but the Cardinals answered back.

Mercer Island won the faceoff, but turned the ball over in its own end and Brian Cameron turned it into a goal just 14 seconds later to tie the game 1-1.

The game was still tied, 2-2, when Cameron found Prunier for his first goal and the lead with 4:48 left in the first. Romanek won the ensuing faceoff and raced down the field, scoring his first varsity goal seven seconds later to make it 4-2.

Two more faceoff wins led to a pair of goals by Sean Cameron in 45 seconds to push the lead to 6-2. In all, the Cardinals scored four goals in 1:11 to take control of the game.

The lead stretched to 9-3 at halftime, and in the second half, Mercer Island was able to get possession and slow down the pace. After Bishop Guertin scored two goals in the first 1:33 of the third quarter, the Islanders kept the ball for most of the next seven minutes.

"The second half, we didn’t have the ball," Chris Cameron said. "Some of that was faceoffs, but we had poor clears. We were sub-50 percent clearing and that’s going to hurt you. You play some of the teams we’re playing and you can’t clear the ball, it’s going to hurt you. When we did clear it, we made them pay.

"We had an answer for any one of their goals. They didn’t get anything easy. We made them work for every one of their goals. We did a lot of good things, but there are a lot of areas we can get better."

Bishop Guertin is back at Stellos Stadium on Thursday when the Cardinals host Hanover (0-1) at 6 p.m. Mercer Island continues it's New England road trip Tuesday with a game at Lincoln-Sudbury, followed by games at Cape Elizabeth (April 12) and Duxbury (April 13).