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# Recent history likely means a playoff rematch between Bishop Guertin, Pinkerton boys lacrosse a toss up
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/recent-history-likely-means-a-playoff-rematch-between-bishop-guertin-pinkerton-boys-lacrosse-a-toss-up/
- Published: 2018-05-02T18:48:16.000Z
- Updated: 2018-05-02T18:48:16.000Z
- Description: With Monday's game now in the books, there have been 25 meetings between the Bishop Guertin High School and Pinkerton Academy boys lacrosse teams over the last 13 years. In most of those years, the teams have met twice, once during the regular season and again at some point in the playoffs, usually
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Spring Sports, Bishop Guertin, boys lacrosse, Division I, NH High School Sports Insider, Pinkerton, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

With Monday's game now in the books, there have been 25 meetings between the Bishop Guertin High School and Pinkerton Academy boys lacrosse teams over the last 13 years.

In most of those years, the teams have met twice, once during the regular season and again at some point in the playoffs, usually in the championship game. In fact, the Cardinals and Astros have played in the title game nine times since 2005, and in six of those games, the champion ended up being the team that lost in the regular season.

That's been the case more often than not since 2011, as five of those seven seasons have seen a split. The only times it didn't happen were Bishop Guertin sweeps in 2014 and in 2012, when the two met in the semifinals.

From 2007 until the Division I championship game in 2015, the Cardinals had dominated the series, winning 13 of the 15 games between the two. But since 2015, when Bishop Guertin won 17-9 in the regular season and Pinkerton pulled off a 9-7 upset in the title game, the Cardinals hold just a 4-3 edge after Monday's 13-11 win in Derry.

"The truth of the matter is, the last six games before this were 3-3," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "It’s because they got the last two state championships. Our attitude is that we beat them as much as we lose to them. This is back and forth all the time."

It sure seems like that the two will meet again in this year's final, as both currently are atop the D1 standings with a few games to spare. Pinkerton (7-1) has already beaten the next three teams in the standings - Exeter (5-2), Londonderry (5-2) and Bedford (6-3) - while Bishop Guertin will play each one over the next three weeks, starting with Londonderry on Wednesday.

Here are some other thoughts and observations from the rivalry and Monday's game:

- Through its first seven games, Bishop Guertin had at times struggled to consistently clear the ball, most notably in wins over Mercer Island and Boston College High. But against Pinkerton, the Cardinals found more success against what is typically a very aggressive ride from the Astros. "They’re aggressive, they slide people up field," Bishop Guertin coach Chris Cameron said. "That was part of our game plan, to get behind them and push transition as much as we could. That’s an area that whatever we have left, we’re going to spend at least 15 or 20 minutes of live (in practice). (The players) wanted live clearing. I did see an improvement (Monday). Not great, but I did see an improvement."
- As much as the game counts for a win in the standings, both sides use the regular-season meeting to gauge where they're at in terms of in-state competition and what they can still work on before the playoffs. That was the case when O'Reilly called for a timeout with 2.9 seconds left on the clock and the Astros down two goals. "You set it up because what if it’s a tie game and you need that," he said. "You’ve got to practice something."
- After some injuries hit both teams over the last few weeks, both sides appeared relatively healthy. For Bishop Guertin, both Brian Cameron and Doug Barker played after missing the team's previous game against Nashua South. Pinkerton saw Tom Sweeney return after he'd sat out a couple of games, although the Astros are still without Chris Valentine and he likely won't return until the very end of the season, if at all.
- Since the start of the 2015 season, against every other team on their schedules, Pinkerton and Bishop Guertin are 106-6\. The Cardinals' losses have come against Boston College High (2017), Xaverian Brothers (2015) and Duxbury (2015), while the Astros lost to Medfield (2017), Bedford (2015) and Londonderry (2015). Bishop Guertin hasn't lost a game to an in-state opponent other than Pinkerton since 2012, when it lost to Hanover in the regular season. The Cardinals haven't lost a game to a team other than Pinketon or Hanover since 2006.