Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse remains unbeaten with win over Xaverian Brothers

NASHUA - For portions of the first half Saturday, the Xaverian Brothers High School boys lacrosse team did many of the things it needed to if the Hawks were going to beat Bishop Guertin.

They won faceoffs, they kept possession for stretches, and they got shots on the cage.

But the one thing the Hawks couldn't do in the early going was slow down Brian Cameron.

Cameron had three of his four goals in the first 14 minutes, to go with a handful of assists, and Bishop Guertin built up a five-goal lead in the first quarter on the way to a 13-8 win over Xaverian at Stellos Stadium.

The Cardinals led by six goals at halftime and went up 12-4 midway through the third quarter, but was scoreless for the final 16-plus minutes, in a game that coach Chris Cameron felt wasn't their best effort.

"We played in spurts very well," the Cardinals coach said. "We came out and put a run on them and then we got flat. We didn’t play 48 minutes and that’s what we’ve got to get to."

Brian Cameron finished with four goals and four assists for Bishop Guertin (13-0) and Sam Prunier also had four goals, including two of the team's first three scores that helped make it a 6-1 game in the first quarter.

Sean Cameron added two goals and an assist while Brennan McInnis had a goal and a helper and Nate Binette and Ben Ablandian added a goal each and Drew Hailey had two assists. James Heitmiller finished with eight saves.

The Cardinals early success came despite Xaverian (10-4) winning the first five faceoffs of the game and six of nine in the first quarter. The Hawks also had some extended possessions early, including one following Prunier's first goal where they hit the post on three consecutive shots.

"We were a little competitive early," Xaverian coach Tim Gardner said. "We had that one sequence where we hit three pipes in one possession. We didn’t make the most of our offensive series in the beginning. I felt like we could have scored if we had possession more. We had five turnovers in the first quarter, which doesn’t help."

Xaverian got two goals and an assist from Sam Jean while Trevor Carroll and Jack Whalen also had two goals. Trevor Ivatts had a goal and an assist and Jack Daoust also scored. Joseph Perry came up with nine saves in the second half after coming on for Teagan Alexander (three saves) at halftime.

The Cardinals got an early opportunity after Xaverian turned the ball over on its first possession and Aidan O'Leary was called for a slash just 1:40 into the game. Despite getting five shots during the man-up, Bishop Guertin didn't score until after the penalty time was up, when Brian Cameron found Prunier out in front of the net for the first goal.

The Hawks won the faceoff and rang the pipe three times before the Cardinals were able to get the ball back. Brian Cameron needed just 30 seconds after that to find the back of the net and make it a 2-0 game.

Xaverian got the faceoff again, but turned it over right away, leading to a transition goal by Prunier and a 3-0 lead just 20 seconds later. The Hawks got on the board off the next faceoff, as Ivatts scored 18 seconds after Prunier's goal to make it 3-1.

But back-to-back goals by Prunier and Binette just 17 seconds apart made it 5-1, and after the Cardinals took a 6-2 lead into the second quarter, Brian Cameron scored back-to-back goals in 51 seconds to push the lead to 8-2.

"It’s hard to find an answer for Brian Cameron," Gardner said. "We didn’t have our full midfield compliment (Saturday) and they just send good midfielder after good midfielder out there. We were outmatched in the midfield and we had a kid who we couldn’t answer at our attack. I think that’s the story of the game that allowed them to get out to the big lead in the first half."

Xaverian was able to work some of the clock to start the third quarter, but Prunier and Brian Cameron got two more goals 18 seconds apart to extend the lead to 12-4 with 7:19 left in the third.

The Cardinals had opportunities to add to the lead - they took 16 shots in the fourth quarter - but weren't able to capitalize. Down seven going into the final 12 minutes, Xaverian scored twice in the three minutes to close out the scoring.

"Our depth and balance was the key," Chris Cameron said. "Again, I thought we left a lot of goals on the table.

"We got beat by (Jean) for two goals, but I thought out close defense overall (was good), especially Doug Barker. Doug was putting the ball on the ground. The team defense was really good because they had some good attackmen."