Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse ready to get season going

NASHUA - It's only the first week of April, and already, the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team looks like its in mid-season form.

There's a good reason for that - the Cardinals have 15 players returning who could start from a team that won the program's fourth straight Division I championship in 2013. The key for this year's group will be maintaining that level of play throughout the season, which unofficially started Wednesday with a 16-6 win over Bedford in a scrimmage at Stellos Stadium.

"I knew were ahead of everybody at this point, and the key is to remain ahead," Cardinals coach Chris Cameron said after the scrimmage. "We have things in that most teams don't have a chance to put in because we have so many guys back. We're deep at the midfield and we can run all day. We're very good at the attack. The faceoffs, we've got one of our guys out, but the other guy did well. Goalie play was outstanding."

The Cardinals got a huge performance from goalie Jake Sonberg against Bedford, as he came up with several huge stops that kept the score well in Bishop Guertin's favor. And the Cardinals' offense was able to come up with a big spurt in the first half - five goals in under five minutes - to give them control.

"If we had to give out a game ball, I would have given him one just because he was the difference in that game," Cameron said of Sonberg. "It's only a scrimmage but it's big because (Bedford is) the new kid on the block and they're coming, and they're not going to stop coming. I don't know how challenged they're going to be because they are so strong. Next year, in D1, they're not going to be a team that takes a lot of lumps early. They're going to jump right in and challenge teams."

Bishop Guertin will face some challenges of its own - its non-division schedule again includes Bishop Hendricken (R.I.), Needham (Mass.), St. Joeseph's (N.J), Lincoln (Mass.), Lasalle Academy (R.I.) and Duxbury (Mass.) - but Cameron again expects the Cardinals' biggest in-state competition to come from Pinkerton, the team they've beaten in the championship game two of the last three years.

Winning another title would also make a bit of history for Bishop Guertin, as it would become the first lacrosse program in New Hampshire to win five consecutive championships. Pinkerton won four straight from 1994-97, when the sport was first sanctioned by the NHIAA, and from 1999-2002.

"They know they've won four in a row, but we're really focusing on winning one," Cameron said. "These guys are good enough that I could probably roll the ball out and they could make it to the final four, but Pinkerton is never going to make it easy on us. We've got to continue to get better."

The Cardinals will try to continue that Saturday, when they take part in a preseason jamboree at Stellos Stadium.