> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Game felt like dress rehearsal for Bishop Guertin, Pinkerton football teams - URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/game-felt-like-dress-rehearsal-for-bishop-guertin-pinkerton-football-teams/ - Published: 2021-10-20T18:45:02.000Z - Updated: 2021-10-20T18:45:02.000Z - Description: Say stop if you've heard this one before. Teams from Bishop Guertin High School and Pinkerton Academy meeting for a highly-anticipated game on the turf at Stellos Stadium, knowing the chances are almost a hundred percent that they'll meet again in a few weeks in the postseason. No, it's not already - Author: Joe Marchilena - Tags: Division I, Bishop Guertin, football, NH High School Sports Insider, Pinkerton, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44 Say stop if you've heard this one before. Teams from Bishop Guertin High School and Pinkerton Academy meeting for a highly-anticipated game on the turf at Stellos Stadium, knowing the chances are almost a hundred percent that they'll meet again in a few weeks in the postseason. No, it's not already boys lacrosse season. It was the seventh week of the high school football season, and with the way the year is playing out - despite COVID-19 still cancelling games - the Saturday night game just seemed like a preview of a Division I quarterfinal matchup that will take place on the first weekend of November. Even with a 22-12 loss to the Astros, the Cardinals (5-2) are still two games up, and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, with the rest of the teams in the West Conference. Bishop Guertin finishes the year with games against Alvirne and Windham, teams that are a combined 1-12. Meanwhile, Pinkerton (6-1) is locked into second in the South Conference, barring something unforeseen happening in the final two weeks of the regular season. The Astros play Nashua North (3-4), which has lost three in a row, on Thursday before taking on Alvirne in the finale, and would probably need Londonderry (7-0) to drop its final two games to move up in the standings. "It’s a unique circumstance," Bishop Guertin football coach John Trisciani said. "I’m not happy about it, I don’t like the circumstance. I’m really happy it seems on paper that we’re going to put ourselves in a position to potentially win the conference and get to the playoffs. "This potential of these three games, someone might say there’s not a lot of weight to them. I don’t like that. We want to be playing meaningful football games in October. I don’t think it’s good for New Hampshire high school football." The fact that each team might see each other again put both coaching staffs in the position of wondering if they should hold something back, or go for a win in a game that could have no affect on the standings. "The way I always approach it is simple," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "You can’t go easy because then you give they psychological edge to your opponent. Even though you were holding back, and you didn’t do this, and your kids didn’t do that, the other kids are like ‘wow, we’ve got these guys.’ "That’s everything in high school football. You can not throw halfback passes or fake punts or whatever you want to hide, but you have to bring intensity." The Astros didn't run any trick plays. In fact, they didn't run many plays in the second half, having just 11 offensive snaps after halftime. One of those was a 51-yard touchdown run by Caden Michaud that gave Pinkerton a 22-6 lead early in the third quarter. Bishop Guertin answered that score with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that took up 7:10 of the quarter and got the Cardinals within 10 points after the two-point conversion failed. A three-and-out by Pinkerton gave Bishop Guertin the ball, but a penalty before the punt return pushed the ball back to the Cardinals' 8-yard line. That's where they started an 18-play, 62-yard drive that used up another 7:41, and when Bishop Guertin turned the ball over on downs with 4:03 left, down two scores, the game felt like it was over. Both teams were without key contributors in this one, with Bishop Guertin's Charlie Bellavance missing his first game of the year while Pinkerton was again without Jacob Albert and Jack Mackinernan. Neither coach was sure if their players would be back in time for the potential rematch. As for the rest of the season, the goal is to keep winning. "I’m going to play these last two games to win," Trisciani said. "We don’t play enough games as it is. The format is what it is. We try to compete. We got a couple of guys reps. We were trying to win the game. The situation is what it is and we’re going to do what we can with it."