Pinkerton takes back-and-forth battle with Bishop Guertin to win second D1 boys lacrosse title in a row (video)

EXETER - Brian O'Reilly wanted the Pinkerton Academy boys lacrosse team to think for a moment that, when the Astros went into the locker room at halftime of Saturday's Division I championship, the game was already over.

After going up 5-1 in the first quarter, Pinkerton watched Bishop Guertin come all the way back, scoring with 1.1 second left on the clock to take a 6-5 lead. If the game ended there, how badly would you want to get back on the field, the Astros coach asked.

Pinkerton carried that mindset into the second half, and while it took a full quarter for the Astros to regroup, they did in a big way.

Down three goals going into the fourth, No. 2 Pinkerton scored eight times in the final 12 minutes, including two goals in the final 37 seconds by Mason Drouin to break a tie and give the Astros a 14-12 win over No. 1 Bishop Guertin at Bill Ball Stadium in Exeter.

The title is the second straight for Pinkerton (17-4, No. 2 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll), the third in five years, and the first time the Astros, who have won a state-record 12 overall titles, have gone back-to-back since winning four in a row from 1999-2002.

"It was an exciting game," O'Reilly said. "It’s the reason why people are supposed to show up to see this game. We had talked before the game, somebody is going to jump out to a big lead. That’s the way it always starts. If it’s us, don’t get excited, because they are going to make a run. If it’s them, don’t get depressed we’ll make a run. It’s going to go 48 minutes, it might even go beyond that, just stick with the plan.

"The other thing I said (at halftime) was I want you to think for a moment that the game just ended and we just lost right now in the last 10 seconds in the game. You’re getting ready to get on the bus and there is nothing more you can do about it, and then all of a sudden, somebody says ‘get off the bus, get back on the field, let’s try it again.’ That seemed to pump them up a little bit."

The Astros got away from that plan in the middle two quarters, as Bishop Guertin (18-3, No. 1) outscored Pinkerton 8-1 over that stretch. But behind Gennaro Marra - who won 22 of 29 faceoffs - the Astros scored three times in the opening 1:44 of the fourth quarter to tie the game.

After Pinkerton took a 12-10 lead with 5:58 remaining, Bishop Guertin came back to tie the game at 12 on a goal by Dawson Clark with 59.4 seconds to go. But Marra won the ensuing faceoff and the ball ended up with Drouin, who scored with 37 seconds to play to give the Astros the lead for good.

"Even with five minutes left, up two goals, the crowd is into it, it’s hard to stay calm and stay focused," Marra said. "We came into the huddle and said we know how fast they can score goals, we’ve just got to possess the ball and try to put it away."

Drouin finished with five goals to lead all scorers while Hunter Drouin scored four goals and Marra and Ryan Auger added two goals apiece. Owen McCormack also scored and Jack Sweeney made 14 saves, including one late in the game with the Astros up a goal.

Bishop Guertin got three goals a piece from Clark, Sean Cameron and Ben Abladian while Chris Kiely had two goals and Mason Carroll also scored. James Heitmiller finished with nine saves and kept the game from getting out of hand in the first quarter for the Cardinals.

"James bailed us out," Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. "We were down 5-1 (after one quarter) and it could have been 8-1. He made a lot of saves and he continued to make saves. James was unbelievable for three quarters and he kept us in that game, and we just let him down in that fourth quarter."

Cameron felt the Cardinals lost their composure at the beginning of the game, and again at the beginning of the fourth, when Pinkerton went on its run to tie the game.

"I think those quick goals, they got rattled us," the coach said. "We were playing fast, we didn’t play loose in the beginning and we didn’t play loose in the end. It was just one run after the other. They just went on one more. For us to hold them to one goal for two quarters, and then they score eight in the fourth quarter, it was disappointing."

The Cardinals went back up on a goal by Kiely with 8:47 left, but Mason Drouin tied it at 10 just 59 seconds later and then Marra won the faceoff and kept it himself to make it 11-10 just nine seconds after that.

Bishop Guertin won the next faceoff, but Sweeney came up with a pair of stops to keep Pinkerton ahead, and Auger scored with 5:58 left to make it 12-10. A bad turnover on an Astros clear led to an empty-net goal by Clark to get the Cardinals back within one goal, and another Pinkerton turnover with under two minutes to play led to another Clark goal that tied the game.

But from there, it was all Marra and Mason Drouin, and the Astros had their second title in as many years.

"I’d say last year was sweet, but this is amazing, just to be able to cap it off in my last game ever with these guys," Marra said. "I’ve played with them for a while. It feels good to finish out on a high note."