Defensive game plan worked well for Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse in title game

Nick Dahl knew that the main focus for the Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team's defense going into the Division I championship game was shutting down Exeter's Aiden Drunsic.

The Cardinals didn't know exactly how it was going to work, but they left a few options available, and went into it knowing they'd do it like they had done most things throughout the season.

"That’s kind of the mentality that we had, it’s not going to come from one guy," Dahl said. "We have to find what we love, not what we like. The mentorship we have, we got guys to where they needed to be. It culminates on June 12 obviously, but it’s what you don’t see, it’s how you get here. A lot of guys worked hard to get this."

While Dahl drew the assignment of guarding Drunsic the most in the final, Bishop Guertin tried a couple of different things against the Blue Hawks' leading scorer and managed to hold him to just an assist in the 11-6 Cardinals' win.

"We know he’s a great player," Dahl said. "We know what he likes to do, so we’ve just been practicing skeleton dodges. We knew it was going to be hard, but I don’t think we knew we’d be this successful with it. When it came down to it, we kind of expected what was coming and that comes from the coaching staff entirely. Working as a unit, we got it done."

Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron thought the defense would be able to find success with the game plan, but against a player like Drunsic - who had five goals when the teams met in the regular season - there's always concern.

"I’m always a little bit nervous, but I had confidence in Dahl," Cameron said. "In the end, we just basically did what we’d been doing all year, we just got better at it. Early on, we forced Drunsic underneath, we call it a coma slide, and (Colin) Roark came in with a physical play. Dahl held Drunsic to zero (goals)."

As the game moved along, and the Cardinals built on their two-goal halftime lead, they were able to try some other things on defense.

But at one point in the third quarter, they got caught in a less-than-ideal situation, when sophomore attackman Brady Dumont rushed back on defense to slow transition and ended up defending Drunsic.

"He got caught," Cameron said. "Brady, to his credit, that’s growing up as a sophomore. In the last game, he was at the midline and he stopped. If you’re the first guy over, just go. He went and shut (Drunsic) off."

Dumont spent the entire position faceguarding Drunsic and the Exeter senior ended up going behind the goal, allowing the teams to play five-on-five.

"Obviously, we never want an attackman to end up on him, but (Dumont) did an amazing job with it," Dahl said. "When it came down to it, Brady locked him off. I don’t know if he was planning to lock him off that much, but that’s what worked."

Once Bishop Guertin got up by four goals, Cameron had the Cardinals switch up the way they were playing defensively.

"We were in control, we were getting stops," the coach said. "We’re going to drop and just keep everything underneath us. Not even sub off our offensive middies, just have them play defense, because we don’t want to give up any transition.

"For the first two and a half quarters, we played (Drunsic) straight up. We didn’t send a double, we didn’t shut him off, but we realized at desperation time, who were they going to go to. It was going to be him. That’s when we decided to shut him off."

When the game ended, Dahl sought out his former NH Tomahawks teammate to talk to him.

"We’re pretty good friends," Dahl said. "Right when the final horn blew, I went up to him. He made an impact on that team and I wanted to make sure he remembered that, and he’s got a bright four years at UMass. It’s not over for him."