Pinkerton girls lacrosse goes with it to get playoff win over Bedford (video)

DERRY - The Pinkerton Academy girls lacrosse team had seen all of it before.

When the Astros played Bedford just two weeks before, the first half had unfolded almost exactly the same, with Pinkerton taking an early lead and Bedford going on a run in the second quarter to pull in front at halftime.

With the stakes higher this time around, the Astros dug as deep as they could, and came out with the same result.

No. 2 Pinkerton opened the third quarter with a 6-0 run, getting contributions from some unlikely sources and in unusual ways, and withstood a late run by No. 7 Bedford to get a 12-9 win Thursday in the Division I quarterfinals.

The win puts the Astros in the semifinals for the first time since 2022, where they will take on No. 3 Souhegan at 5 p.m. Sunday at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter. The Sabers advanced with a 7-4 win over No. 6 Bishop Guertin.

"It was tough," Pinkerton sophomore Delaney Summers said. "We had to come in mentally prepared, and all day, we were preparing for this game. We knew the heat was going to be hard and we knew that Bedford wanted it, so we had to want it more."

Summers led the way with five goals for the Astros (16-3) and Elise Collins had two goals and an assist as the Bulldogs committed fully to faceguarding Hannah Lisauskas, who set the program record for assists in a single season earlier this spring.

With Bedford's Teagan O'Donnell following Lisauskas around all over the field, the Pinkerton senior went without an assist, but broke free enough to score three goals. Two of those scores came in the third quarter as part of the Astros' run.

"It definitely changes things having someone on your toes at all times," Lisauskas said. "I came in with a good mindset, and I expected that after our regular season game. Our coaches prepared me well and I knew exactly what I was doing. I tried to do the best I could. It’s hard to not be able to facilitate, but my teammates did such a good job of stepping up and fulfilling their roles. They knew what to expect coming into this."

Anna Perkins had three assists for the Astros and Francesca Doyle had a goal and an assist, as did Melayna Marra, who entered the game to take the draw to start the third quarter and helped swing momentum.

"It started with Melayna winning the draw," Lisauskas said. "She really turned this game around for us and put us on a good run. We said in the huddle ‘it’s win or go home.’ We have to do it and want it more and do the little things. We had all the energy, we had the good vibes. All of our girls were stepping up."

At the other end, Sara DiClemente finished with nine saves and Collins took the responsibility of guarding Bedford's Maddie Kiely, who scored three goals, with two coming early in the second quarter as part of a 5-1 run for the Bulldogs that gave them a 5-4 lead at halftime.

Eloise Montagano led Bedford (9-8) with five goals and Mary Lenti had a goal and an assist.

Neither team scored for almost eight minutes to start the game, but Summers broke through with 4:03 remaining in the first quarter for Pinkerton and the Astros went up 3-0 at the end of one.

Bedford came back in the second quarter, with three goals from Montagano in just 3:05 at the end of the  first half giving the Bulldogs the lead at the break.

"You know they’re going to fight the whole time, start to end, and lacrosse is a game of runs," Pinkerton coach Katie Bourque said. "We try to fire them up (at halftime), make little adjustments and then go."

It worked for the Astros. The Bulldogs won the first draw of the second half, but turned it over, leading to a goal by Lisauskas. Marra won the ensuing draw and assisted on another goal by Lisauskas to put Pinkerton in front 6-5.

After another win by Marra, Summers scored to make it three goals in 1:26 for the Astros and force Bedford to take a timeout.

"We wanted to go on our run, because we knew it was going to be a game of runs," Summers said. "We just had to make sure we had more runs than them. We had to be winning the draw and getting the stops on defense."

Pinkerton built the lead up to five goals, but two yellow cards in the final three minutes of the quarter allowed Bedford to go on a 3-0 run and make it a 10-8 game going into the fourth. Summers scored just 49 seconds into the final quarter and then added another goal with 7:45 to play to put the game away for the Astros.

"It is the greatest feeling and it is such a team win," Lisauskas said. "Being able to compete one more game and be able to have my stick in my hand, I just want to continue to work hard for the next two days."