Bishop Guertin outlasts Bedford to claim record 13th D1 boys lacrosse title

EXETER - Paulo Vazquez was ready for whatever was thrown at him during Saturday's Division I boys lacrosse championship.

The Bishop Guertin High School junior had already seen a lot coming at him on faceoffs throughout the course of the season. The big difference in the final was Vazquez knew Bedford had a lot of different things they could do to try to trip him and his teammates up.

In the end, Vazquez was able to fight off whatever the Bulldogs sent his way, winning 27 of 30 faceoffs to continue to give the No. 2 Cardinals possessions, and Bishop Guertin capitalized, fighting off top-seeded Bedford for a 15-12 win at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

It's the Cardinals' fourth D1 title in a row and 13th overall, setting a state record for boys lacrosse championships. Bishop Guertin (18-3) has also won 64 games in a row against New Hampshire opponents.

But this matchup was one Cardinals coach Chris Cameron had on his mind ever since the teams played a double-overtime game back on April 23.

"The only time I stopped talking about Bedford was when we had to play Exeter in the semis at Exeter," Cameron said. "I knew who it was going to be. The day after (the regular-season game), we started doing things to get ready for Bedford."

After the Bulldogs (18-2) used a couple of different players, including long poles, during the regular-season game, Vazquez expected to see more of the same.

"Anything they threw at me, I handled it really well and they couldn’t," he said. "I come into every game (thinking) I’m the best in the nation, and I think I proved that there and throughout the whole season.

"Throughout the whole season, I’ve gotten poled, and I think I’ve gotten better and learned from it each time. Coming into this game, we expected it right off the dot, and they did it. We just executed everything perfectly."

Michael Ponto led Bishop Guertin with five goals and an assist while Owen King had three goals and an assist. Caleb Yeung (two assists), Cam Hayden and Beau Dubois each had two goals while Jeremy Warren had a goal and an assist.

Will Murphy finished with just five saves for the Cardinals, as Bedford was able to overcome its limited possession time with quality shots.

"It was a weird game because we didn’t make the saves we normally make and they were getting quality shots that we didn’t give up all year," Cameron said. "It felt like they were there the whole time and they weren’t going to go away."

Bedford got three goals apiece from Derek Kulesza, Luke Purnell and Bennett Matthews (one assist) while Sam Barad had two goals and Brody Helton had a goal and an assist. Ethan Conn finished with six saves, but the difference in possession time turned out to be too much.

"It was just those possessions," Bedford coach Drew Bourdeau said. "We didn’t get enough and (Vazquez) just started to turn it on. He had a couple of those where he was able to get a quick outlet and then they were executing on offense.

"The biggest thing is we were trying to make him tire himself out and just run around the field. We didn’t do a good job of shutting guys off, so there were times where maybe he’d run for 10 seconds, but then he’d get an easy outlet. We were trying to keep them from getting into the flow of their offense."

The Cardinals were able to take advantage at the end of each half. After Bedford scored first, Bishop Guertin went on a 5-2 run to take a two-goal lead early in the second quarter.

The Bulldogs were able to tie it on goals by Purnell and Helton, but after another faceoff win, Ponto scored with 2:37 left in the first half to make it 6-5. The Cardinals turned the ball over with 45 seconds left in the half, but Bedford rushed a shot at the other end and gave the ball back just 13 seconds later.

Ponto tacked on another goal with 17.9 seconds left, and after a procedural penalty on Bedford on the faceoff, Yeung scored eight seconds later to make it 8-5. Vazquez almost made it a four-goal game at halftime, winning another faceoff and racing down field for a shot, but officials waved off the goal for being too late.

King gave the Cardinals the four-goal lead with 7:59 remaining in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs responded. Purnell scored back-to-back goals, followed by a manup goal by Kulesza, to get Bedford within one, 9-8.

Yeung answered 30 seconds later, but Barad scored on manup with 1:33 left in the quarter to make it 10-9 after three. Matthews, who had all of his goals in the fourth quarter, scored his first with 9:07 remaining to tie the game at 10.

"When we started to get on runs, it was because we were getting possessions off rides," Bourdeau said. "But when you have someone like (Vazquez), it’s hard to piece together the runs you need to win that game."

Bishop Guertin needed just 44 seconds to go back in front on a goal by Hayden, and from there, Bedford struggled to get the ball back. The Cardinals scored three goals in 1:29 to take a 14-10 lead with 4:12 remaining.

"I never felt comfortable," Cameron said. "Until it got to 14-10, did I feel good. At 10-10, that was huge and we answered the bell. We were tested a lot all year and we had a lot of tight games.

"Playing those games, you can talk about composure all day long, but you can’t just talk about. It’s something you have to learn by working through it."