Bishop Guertin shuts down Pinkerton in second half to win D1 title

NASHUA – Paul Spinney’s goal with 40 seconds left in the third quarter wasn’t a big deal because it was his third of the frame.

It was a big deal because it gave the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team something neither it nor Pinkerton Academy had had yet in Wednesday’s Division I championship game – a three-goal lead.

With a little more breathing room, the No. 2 Cardinals had an easier time forcing the No. 1 Astros out of their game, keeping Pinkerton off the scoreboard for nearly 19 minutes in the second half on the way to an 11-8 win at Stellos Stadium.

Spinney led Bishop Guertin (14-1) with three goals and Erik Kelly added two, as eight different players scored for the Cardinals, who won their second straight Division I title.

“To go from two to three (goals), it changes the momentum,” Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. “I had a feeling that the team that got the lead in the third quarter was going to make the other team play a way they didn’t want to play. We made them have to go to the goal and take bad shots. Bad shots on our goalie just turn into fastbreaks and that’s what happened.”

Cardinals’ goalie Colin Delea made a number of saves in the fourth quarter, and with the help of Bob Fahey, Kyle Karaska, Jake Krzyston and Brody Smith, held the Astros (16-1) to one of their lowest scoring games of the season. Pinkerton also scored eight goals in an 8-7 win over Bishop Guertin during the regular season.

“Once you start pushing because you’re down multiple goals, you just start taking shots,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “Our offense is six guys touching the ball. I don’t care who you put on who, that has never been a problem the entire year. We have a different guy coming through every time. Guys weren’t pulling the trigger.”

Those missed shots led directly to opportunities for the Cardinals in transition.

“Giving up 11 goals, a lot of that stems from them doing a really nice job catching our midfielders on offense, down low, and then (Bishop Guertin) going over our heads to get down the field,” O’Reilly said. “It’s something we work on all the time, and it was certainly preached from the sidelines, to get to the center line and pick those people up.”

In the first half, both teams were getting goals in transition, going back and forth on the score board. The Cardinals had the biggest lead of the first half, 4-2 late in the first quarter, but the Astros erased that deficit with two goals in the final three minutes of the frame.

Smith gave the Cardinals the lead 15 seconds into the second quarter, but Pinkerton tied it on a goal by Jeff Auger and took its last lead of the game on a goal by Tom Auger with 4:53 left in the half.

Bishop Guertin struggled on offense the rest of the half, but took advantage of a Pinkerton turnover at midfield, getting a goal from John Miller with 11.4 seconds left to tie the game.

The teams traded goals again early in the third quarter, but after Pinkerton tied it at 7 with 8:00 minutes to play, the Cardinals took control.

Matt Thistle put Bishop Guertin up for good with 3:57 left, and Spinney scored twice before the end of the quarter. The Cardinals added another goal early in the fourth to make it 11-7 and kept the Astros out of the back of the net until only 1:10 remained in the game.

“The first half, we gave up some uncharacteristic goals,” Cameron said. “They’re a good team and they pushed it on us in transition, which we don’t usually give up. We played OK in the second half. At halftime, I saw our guys and they were tired. I was worried. In the second half, they found another gear and they just worked.”

Luke Somers led Pinkerton with three goals and Jeff Auger had two.