Fourth-quarter performance long time coming for Bishop Guertin's McGovern

When Nick McGovern's first shot of the fourth quarter found the back of the net, the Bishop Guertin High School senior let out a yell the entire town of Bedford could hear.

Or probably would have, had the crowd - and McGovern's teammates and coaches - roared right along with him.

The goal early in the fourth of Saturday's Division I boys lacrosse final proved to be the game-winner in the Cardinals' 9-7 win over Exeter, and McGovern added another one just for good measure.

"This was truly special," he said of the championship win. "To be able to play in this championship game with my brothers, who I’ve known since fifth grade. It was really something special. I kept saying in the huddle, give it all we’ve got. Dig deep, because that’s what we had to do. It was just keeping that mindset. It’s not over until it’s over."

Bishop Guertin trailed 4-0 after one quarter and went into the fourth tied at 6 with an Exeter team it had beaten twice during the regular season. Before the final, the closest game the Cardinals had played all year was their 12-6 win over the Blue Hawks back on May 7.

"We dug in," Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. "We didn’t have a close game all year and that’s a big challenge. It’s certainly a different feeling."

Coming back is something McGovern was too familiar with throughout his Bishop Guertin career. After transferring from Bow before his sophomore year, he suffered a nagging hamstring injury that forced him to miss most of that season.

"It was tough," he said. "I never thought it would be a thing to take me down for that year. It was a lot of work back, but I credit my teammates and my coaches for sticking by me for a long time. I couldn’t have done it without them."

After working to get back to full strength, the frustration continued to mount after the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"What a special season that would have been," McGovern said. "That was another thing we were playing for this season. That 2020 class would have been something. We had that to play for this season. It was hard to be upset, given the circumstances, but it was tough to imagine what that could have been. That was motivation this year as well."

Getting McGovern back to full strength was a big boost for the Cardinals' midfield this season, and the team's depth allowed Cameron to not put too much on him until they needed it.

"He is a high-level player," the coach said. "He battled through two years of injuries. It was so nice to see him be able to come back and get that done. When you don’t have that many close games, you can play a second and third middie line, which we did all year."

But on the biggest stage, Bishop Guertin leaned on its top middie line and those players made the difference. Chris Heitmiller had two goals in the second quarter to help the Cardinals come back from that 4-0 deficit, and to open the fourth, McGovern found Michael Kiely for a goal that gave Bishop Guertin a 7-6 lead.

The senior then got his pair of goals to help Bishop Guertin pull out the 10th championship in the program's history.

"I think when we started spinning the ball and winning our matchups up top, once we got it rotating, we were good," McGovern said. "That’s where we found a lot of our success and that allowed us to come out on top."