Bishop Guertin girls lacrosse wins 3rd straight D1 title with win over Pinkerton (video)

EXETER - It's tough for a team to make changes when it reaches a championship game without a blemish on its record.

But going into Tuesday night's Division I final, the Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team decided to make a big one.

After calling plays on the field throughout the season, the Cardinals asked coach Leslie Why to take over that responsibility against Pinkerton.

It turned out to be a good move, as Bishop Guertin's first seven goals were scored by seven players and the Cardinals cruised to a 20-3 win over the Astros to win their third D1 title in a row at Exeter High School.

The win completes the first undefeated season in program history for the Cardinals (19-0) and the 20 goals tied for the second-most in a final, matching the total scored by Nashua's 20-8 win over Concord in 1999. The margin of victory is a state record.

"We had watched a lot of film and they repeated a lot of things (Tuesday) that they had done on film," Why said. "We were able to crack that piece and we were very specific with our game plan and it worked out really well.

"The girls asked me before if I could call the plays and the motions and the sets. I’ve never done that before because I’ve believed that it’s their game. I think they know that when they get tired, it’s hard for them to process what they should do next. It’s easier for a coach to put it together beforehand. I had never thought about doing it before because I didn’t think we needed to."

Madison Keating led eight players in scoring, netting four goals, including the 100th goal of her career in the first half. Natalie Coutu added three goals and two assists while Rylee Bouvier, Lidnsay Hult and Amelia Piercy each had three goals and an assist.

Stephanie Reap also had two goals wile Katie Campel and Tess Prunier had a goal and an assist apiece. Anna Campel and Kate Simpson each had an assist and Makenna Reekie made six saves.

"Every game we have a variety of scorers," Hult said. "They may not all be assisted goals, but we’re going off plays. We have so much depth, it’s kind of expected to have (eight) scorers. It shows how deep we are on offense."

Bishop Guertin's defense, which includes Emma Hayhurst, Kyla Pascucci, Delaney Ramalho, Frida Turriza and Teagan McInnis along with Reekie, was at the top of its game, too. After Pinkerton scored the game's first goal, the Astros didn't find the back of the net again for almost 16 minutes and they didn't score after halftime.

"We were just outgunned, it’s as simple as that," Pinkerton coach Rob Daziel said. "I was hoping (Tuesday) was going to be a little closer, but it is what it is."

Abby Jowett scored twice for Pinkerton (16-5) while Ali Lamphere also scored and Lauren Sweeney made six saves.

Lamphere gave the Astros a 1-0 lead just 54 seconds into the game, scoring off the draw, and Pinkerton won the following one as well, but turned the ball over. Bishop Guertin took advantage, getting a Bouvier goal at the other end, and Katie Campbell made it 2-1 just 13 seconds later.

Hult, Reap, Piercy, Keating and Coutu would also scoring during the run, which saw the Cardinals take a 7-1 lead with 11:47 remaining in the first half. Jowett scored with 8:33 left until the break to make it 7-2, but Coutu scored 13 seconds later and Keating added two goals in less than a minute to give Bishop Guertin a 9-2 lead.

"When we have so many different goal scorers, it’s not just one or two people," Keating said. "It’s everyone on offense, everyone is a threat. I think it’s hard to defend everyone, as opposed to face-guarding one or two people."

The Cardinals took an 11-3 lead into halftime and goals by Piercy and Hult in the first four minutes of the second half put the game into running time for the final 20-plus minutes.

"They have three or four key scoring players," Why said. "We realized pretty quickly, if we just focus on them, and send the slide early, as opposed to late … Abby Jowett, once she gets going, she is really hard to stop. We sent the double really quickly so we would trap her, and we tried not to foul.

"We are different this year. We’re calmer, we’re confident in what we can do. We do the work, we have a game plan, and we put in the hours to do it."