Bishop Guertin girls lacrosse able to hold off Franklin (video)

NASHUA - Rylee Bouvier has played a fair amount of defense as a two-way midfield for the Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team.

The senior doesn't remember ever having to defend for as long as the Cardinals had to Saturday against Franklin (Mass.).

With the Panthers winning the final five draws of the game, Bishop Guertin was left to defend its end for more than nine minutes at the end of the game. While Franklin was able to cut a six-goal deficit down to two, scoring with 4:26 remaining, the Cardinals didn't let it get any closer and forced a turnover with under 30 seconds to play to hang on for a 12-10 win at Stellos Stadium.

"I have a lot of confidence in our defense and I’ve seen us play shutdown defense like that before," Bouvier said. "Maybe not for nine minutes, but we work it a lot. I didn’t have a doubt."

Bishop Guertin (12-0-1, No. 1 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) got two big saves from Makenna Reekie in that final four-minute stretch and Bouvier helped force the game-clinching turnover, which Delaney Ramahlo scooped up and got to Reekie to set up the clear.

"Defense wins championships," Bishop Guertin coach Leslie Why said. "When we play fast, we play our game, we score a lot of goals, but there was no option to play fast (Saturday) the whole game. We did get more relief in there.

"When there is no room to get your accustomed to (the heat), it’s really hard. We had to take it easy. It’s probably 90-plus degrees on the turf. There’s no adjustment for that. The composure was impressive."

Bouvier and Nat Coutu each finished with four goals for the Cardinals and Lauren Redfern had three goals and three assists. Arianna Kouchalakos added a goal and an assist and Steph Reap and Kam Schmitt had an assist apiece while Reekie finished with nine saves.

Franklin (11-2) got four goals each from Kate O'Rourke and Kaitlyn Carney, who scored three of the Panthers' goals in the final run. Jacqueline O'Neil and Katie Peterson added a goal apiece while goalie Riley Cross made five saves.

The Panthers looked like they had scored on the game's opening possession, but a goal by O'Rourke was waved off when she was ruled to be in the crease. The Cardinals took advantage, getting a free-position goal from Redfern to take a 1-0 lead in the game's first five minutes.

Although Franklin won the first five draws of the game - the Panthers had a 14-9 advantage overall - Bishop Guertin was able to get out to a 5-1 lead thanks to saves by Reekie and turnovers by the Panthers.

"Makenna is playing her best lacrosse right now," Bouvier said. "She’s really at her peak. She’s making those big saves."

Bouvier made a big play of her own to put the Cardinals up during that run, knocking the ball away from Franklin's Stella Regan and picking up the groundball. She outran the Panthers into the offensive end, gave the ball to Schmitt and continued on toward the net before getting the ball back and scoring.

"Our coach always says it’s a spark for us. It lights a fire under our defense, getting defense to offense," Bouvier said. "We like to push the fast break as a team. Coming straight from a big defensive stop, turnover down to a goal, nothing gets better than that."

The Cardinals took a 7-3 lead into halftime and got a break early in the second to stretch it to five goals.

Coutu got a pass out in front of the goal and Cross came out of the crease to successfully knock the ball away, but when it hit the turf, it spun back toward the goal and rolled in for a score. After a win on the draw, Bouvier added another goal 19 seconds later to make it 9-3.

"I was surprised that we went up that fast, and by that much," Why said. "I was hoping we would have that same run (like against Bedford) when they got cards, but the heat just took it out of us. I don’t think we could do it. Once you go off the cliff, you don’t come back."

Coutu scored with 9:43 to play to give Bishop Guertin a 12-6 lead and it looked like the Cardinals were well on their way to the win, but Franklin answered quickly.

Carney scored twice in just 45 seconds to make it 12-8 and O'Rourke scored with 6:15 remaining to cut the lead to three. Reekie made a save on Franklin's next possession, but the Panthers got the rebound and Carney scored on a free position with 4:26 to play.

Franklin controlled the draw again, but that was as close as the Cardinals would allow it to get.

"It was a long stretch," Bouvier said. "Holding them that last five minutes to no goals was probably the best defense we’ve played all year. Nothing gets more exciting than that."