Bishop Guertin girls lacrosse starts fast to beat Nashua South in D1 playoffs (video)

NASHUA - The playoffs started earlier than usual this spring, but the Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team was ready.

The Cardinals five goals in the first five minutes of Monday's Division I opening-round game against Nashua South and never looked back on the way to an 18-2 win over the Panthers at Stellos Stadium.

Ten different players had at least one goal for Bishop Guertin (16-0), including three for senior Lindsay Hult, including the 100th of her high school career. Stephanie Reap also had three goals and an assist and Natalie Coutu had two goals and three assists.

"I was very happy with how we played (Monday)," Bishop Guertin coach Leslie Why said. "Using everybody (Monday) to make sure the younger kids are getting the touches and the development, and the more seasoned veterans are getting enough time with the new sets and formations and stuff is well-balanced, and no body let up. It was a full effort the whole time."

Rylee Bouvier, Tannah O'Neil-Blake and Katie Campel had two goals apiece for the Cardinals, who move on to face Nashua North, which beat Keene-Monadnock on Monday, in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The Titans will be the host for the game, which starts at 4 p.m., at Stellos.

Madison Keating and Amelia Piercy had a goal and an assist each and Tess Prunier and Arianna Kouchalakas each had a goal. Teagan McGinnis and Anna Campel both recorded assists.

"When you have that chemistry, and we’ve found a few warmup drills that we’ll start every practice and every warmup with, and it immediately gives us energy," Why said of the Cardinals' start to the game. "It helps when your warmup and your practice all kind of mirror it when you come out here. You see the ball movement and the transition up and down the field, it’s been phenomenal."

Bishop Guertin won the first nine draws and built the lead up to 10-0 with 12:41 remaining in the opening half, but added just three more goals before halftime.

"We went into (Monday) saying we want to make them work for everything, give them a fight and don’t roll over for them," South coach Ciki McIntire said. "They went out there and worked hard. I kept telling them don’t worry about the scoreboard, we’re just going to compete and work hard."

Kylie Dawe had both goals for the Panthers (10-7) and Olivia Johnson had an assist. South got a scare early in the second quarter, when Johnson went down with what appeared to be a right knee injury when she tried to make a cut, but McIntire was hopeful the injury wouldn't turn out to be serious.

Dawe's second goal of the game made it 13-2 with just over 20 minutes left in the game, as the Panthers were able to put pressure on the Cardinals' defense for long stretches to open the half.

But back-to-back turnovers by South led to goals by Coutu and O'Neil-Blake to give Bishop Guertin a 15-2 lead with 14:52 left in the game.

"We’ve had trouble with being a first-half team and not a second-half team, and then we’ve had trouble being a second-half team and not first half," Why said. "We’re right on time. We weren’t a full (game) team, we are now and we’re putting things in now that are right on time. It’s been fun."

Despite the loss, McIntire felt good about what the Panthers were able to accomplish this season, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

"Our focus this year was on defense," the coach said. "We had to focus on that and to see the difference in 1-vs.-1 defense from the beginning of the season to now, and how so many of them improved defensively, is just amazing to see that. I think that’s the biggest takeaway, that our defense worked hard and kept us in a lot of games."