Bishop Guertin football takes care of business against Dover in D1 prelims

NASHUA - It was an inauspicious start to Saturday's Division I preliminary-round game.

Both the Bishop Guertin and Dover high school football teams might argue to which one of them it applied.

The Green Wave recovered an onside kick to start the game, getting the ball in Cardinals' territory. But two plays later, the snap went over everyone and rolled all the way back to Dover's 36-yard line before Bishop Guertin recovered it.

That got the Cardinals' offense going, as they scored on their first four possessions to take a 28-0 lead in the first half and No. 5 Bishop Guertin rolled to a 42-14 win over No. 12 Dover at Stellos Stadium. It was the first playoff win for the Cardinals since 2014, they move on to face No. 4 Pinkerton in the quarterfinals next weekend.

"Overall, it’s emotional, to take part in a game like that and see where the program has come," Bishop Guertin coach John Trisciani said. "We finally got that playoff win. Now can we get some confidence. Going to Pinkerton, not a lot of teams go there and win. It's quite a challenge. Next round, there’s no body left that’s not good."

Matt Santosuosso was good for Bishop Guertin (8-2) in this one, as the senior rushed for 190 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries and was 7 of 9 for 117 yards and two more scores passing. Charlie Bellavance returned to the Cardinals' offensive backfield for the first time in seven weeks, as he ran for 51 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

Ethan Chmielecki and Ronan Balistreri each caught a touchdown pass from Santosuosso, as Bishop Guertin compiled 446 yards on offense, including 309 on the ground.

"They’re downhill runners and do a great job of finding space and getting what they can," Dover coach Eric Cumba said. "A lot of times, they end up coming out the back end. I didn’t think we did an awful job defensively of kind of boxing them in, obviously, we just didn’t do it enough. In terms of our game plan, we did what we wanted to do, we just didn’t do it consistently."

Ryder Aubin led the Green Wave (3-6 in D1, 4-6 overall) by completing 22 of 34 passes for 270 yards and an interception to go with a 10-yard rushing touchdown in the second half. Brady Mcinnes also had a touchdown on the ground, as he rushed for 32 yards and caught six passes for 38 yards, while Brett Davis had six catches for 119 yards and Bryce Carberry had five catches for 62 yards.

The Cardinals took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10-yard pass from Santosuosso to Chmielecki and a 35-yard run by the quarterback.

Bellavance capped each of Bishop Guertin's next two drives with his rushing touchdowns, while the defense came up with two stops after Dover had moved inside the Cardinals' 20-yard line.

Mcinnes got the Green Wave on the board with a 6-yard touchdown run with 4:08 left in the third quarter, but Bishop Guertin answered on its second play on the next drive. Santosuosso found Balstreri wide open over the middle for a 58-yard touchdown.

The quarterbacks traded touchdowns after that, with Aubin scoring on a 10-yard run to end Dover's next drive and Santosuosso scoring from 22 yards out to make it 42-14 with 11:23 left in the game.

The Green Wave put another long drive together after that, moving down to the Cardinals' 8-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs with 9:05 remaining. Bishop Guertin kept the ball the rest of the way, running out the remaining time with a 14-play drive.

"It’s a good start," Trisciani said. "To have that onside kick right off the bat and they get the ball, that’s not what we’re looking for. Luckily, they gave the ball right back to us, so it was kind of like no harm, no foul. From there, it was pedal to the metal offensively. We were efficient. No turnovers, no negative plays, no penalties. To be up 28-0 at the half was awesome."