Pinkerton boys lacrosse does enough to get a good win over Bedford (video)

DERRY - As the season moves along, Steve Gaudreau is hoping to see a little more consistency from start to finish from the Pinkerton Academy boys lacrosse team.

For now, getting a win over a good team in the first week of the season is just fine.

After a slow start, the Astros went on a 7-0 run over the final 14 minutes of the first half and held off a late charge by Bedford for a 12-6 win over the Bulldogs on Saturday.

Hunter Drouin led the way for Pinkerton (3-0) with five goals and an assist while Mason Barbone had two goals and two assists and Liam Prescott (assist) and Riley Spellman added two goals apiece.

"It was good to get a win," Gaudreau said. "Bedford is a good program, well-coached, so for us, in this part of the season, it’s good to have a test like this to learn a little more about us. We’re certainly happy to get away with a win. It wasn’t our cleanest game, certainly gave us a lot to work on Monday at practice."

Bedford (2-1) took a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, and Max Manniello put the Bulldogs up 2-1 with 5:06 remaining in the quarter as the Astros struggled to get anything set up on offense. A goal by Prescott tied it at 2 with 1:32 to go in the opening quarter and Pinkerton started to wake up after that.

The Astros scored six more to open the second quarter and take an 8-2 lead. That advantage grew to 10-3 in the third quarter before Bedford started chipping away, pulling within four goals with 9:03 remaining before Pinkerton was able to put the game away.

"You get up a little bit and feel good about yourself, and then execution might wane in the process," Gaudreau said. "Definitely consistency is going to be a theme for us heading into next week. Once we string together that consistency, we’ll be fine."

Joey Gallo also had a goal and an assist for Pinkerton and Jackson Morrissette had two assists while Curtis Michaud made 11 saves.

Manniello and Will Kramer had two goals apiece to lead the Bulldogs while Connor Arbusto had a goal and an assist. Derek Greer also had a goal and Evan Schmitt and Sean Toscano had an assist each.

"We kind of dug ourselves a hole giving up some in transition, but 6-v-6, we were pretty good," Bedford coach Matt Johansmeyer said. "Pinkerton is a really good squad and the Drouin kid is special. He’s a special player. I’m happy we were able to finish to the end. We cleaned up some things and I think we learned something."

Drouin scored two goals in a row midway through the third quarter to make it 10-3 Pinkerton, but a penalty on the Astros gave the Bulldogs a manup opportunity. Manniello scored less than 30 seconds later and the goal seemed to give Bedford life.

Kramer made it 10-5 with his first goal in the final minute of the quarter and he scored again with 9:03 remaining, cutting the Pinkerton lead to four with a lot of time left. But Bedford struggled to hang on to the ball and Michaud stopped whatever shots the Bulldogs got on goal.

Drouin and Prescott scored just 15 seconds apart, making it 12-6 with 2:48 remaining, to put the game away.