Cardinals, Warriors get together for another Division II title game

Another title game rematch, but this one was expected.

Going into the year, the Bishop Guertin High School and Winnacunnet of Hampton football teams were predicted by many to be the two best teams in Division II.

Injuries and a two-game losing skid for each side left some question as to whether one or both would get to another title game.

But both teams righted the ship in different ways in the final weeks of the season – the Warriors got healthy while the Cardinals found replacements – and both turned in second-half comebacks in last week’s semifinal game to get to where they were a year ago. Bishop Guertin knocked off Keene 28-21 and Winnacunnet beat Dover 30-27 in overtime last weekend.

The No. 1 Cardinals, who beat Winnacunnet a year ago 31-0, will host the No. 2 Warriors Saturday at 1 p.m. at Stellos Stadium in the championship game.

While Bishop Guertin was down just a point to Keene going into the fourth quarter, Winnacunnet was in serious danger of seeing its season end prematurely.

Winnacunnet trailed Dover by 14 points late in the third quarter, but rallied to tie the game at 24 and even had a chance to win in regulation before a goalline fumble by quarterback Steve Cronan ended that drive.

Cronan made up for it by throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Matt Sullivan on Winnacunnet’s first possession of overtime for a 30-27 victory and a second-straight appearance in the title game.

But unlike this year, the Warriors, who upset Exeter to make it to last year’s championship game, were a bit more of a mystery to the Cardinals a year ago.

“I knew Exeter was our rival and I knew some of the other teams in the league, but Winnacunnet really never stood out as one of those teams,” Bishop Guertin quarterback Steve Cuipa said. “This year, people were talking a Winnacunnet-BG final. You realize it’s going to come down to that. They’re a great team.”

Bishop Guertin got the No. 1 seed this season in part by beating Winnacunnet 28-14 in Hampton on Oct. 22.

In that game, the Warriors had an early lead before the Cardinals tied it at 7 with just under four minutes to go in the first half. The fireworks started right after that, as Winnacunnet’s Grant Hamel returned the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a score and Bishop Guertin’s CJ Boykin responded with a 92-yard kickoff return of his own to make it 14-14 at halftime.

Second-half touchdown runs by Cuipa and Alex Eaton, who will be returning for Saturday’s game after missing the last three for an undisclosed reason, gave the Cardinals the win.

“I think that Winancunnet had a couple of injuries (mid-season) but they got those kids back,” Johnson said. “That makes them a more powerful and a stronger team. The semifinal game, Cronan threw the ball more than I’d ever seen him throw the ball, so that adds an extra element into it.”

After playing each other three times in the last 13 months, there isn’t much that either team doesn’t know about the other.

“It’s a game where both coaches and players know each other,” Johnson said. “Cuipa had been with Cronan practically all summer at various camps and things like that. Both teams know each other and there’s not going to be unexpected things.”

Perhaps the only thing left to figure out for the Cardinals is who is going to be in the backfield with Cuipa. Last week’s starter at running back, Kyle Remillard, was injured in the second quarter and did not return, leaving Zach Mailloux as the lone healthy running back for Bishop Guertin.

“Eaton will be back and another kid, Nick Marion, he came back,” Johnson said. “We’ve got two big backs in Nolan Cornell and Brian Bottari, but that doesn’t fit into the speed-option game. At this point now … worst case, we’ll just go no backs. We’ve got a ton of receivers.”

It’ll have to wait until Saturday to see just how serious Johnson was about lining up with an empty backfield, but if that’s the game plan, Cuipa is all for it.

“I’d love to toss the ball around,” he said. “Whatever it takes, as long as we come off the field as winners, we’ll be happy.”