NASHUA – The Exeter High School boys lacrosse team was simply playing Bishop Guertin at the wrong time.
When we last saw the Cardinals, they looked, well, a bit out of sorts. They saw their 86-game in-state win streak come to an end at the hands of Pinkerton Academy, and were trying to figure out how to get by without injured All-American lefties Owen King and Cam Hayden.
Well, by Monday, they seemingly had all that figured out as they handed fellow Division I contender Exeter a 13-5 pasting at Rivier University’s Joanne Merrill Field.
“After Pinkerton, we had a full week to prepare,” Cards coach Brian Cameron said. “We have to play a little bit different, it’s going to look a little bit different, but we played like we wanted to today.”
One might have thought the Cards would be a bit vulnerable after last week’s back-to-back losses to Staples and the Astros.
Not so.
“I don’t think we had any expectations,” Exeter coach Matt Brewster said. “We’ve got like 95 percent of our roster that’s never played them before. A learning experience for them, for sure.”
That learning began after the Blue Hawks’ Sean Haugh tied the score at 1 with 4: 58 left in the first,two minutes after BG’s Jack Redfern opened the scoring with the first of his five goals.
That’s because after that, the Cards scored 10 of the next 11 goals, stretching through the end of the third quarter.
Drew Redfern finished with four goals, giving the brothers a combined nine. They seem to be the go-to’s right now, while Hudson Schmitt led BG with four assists.
“Jack is having an All-American season,” Cameron said. “We looked at the Pinkerton film and With Drew’s athleticism, that was an area where we could have gotten more out of him. So we’re looking to use his athleticism coming off of picks, the timing of the picks, to free it up more.”
For Exeter, Declan Sankowich had two goals while Jackson Loranger and Alex Carrigan each had a goal. Loranger’s was impressive as it was all individual effort battling for a loose ball before beating BG netminder Jonah Feliciano, who combined with Mason Lallemand and Jordan LeClair for eight saves.
“We need that, that was a little spark,” Brewster said, adding the Blue Hawks didn’t have any man-up situations and hit a few pipes. “It’s high school lacrosse and things are going to happen.”
But really, the things that were happening were crisp BG passes, accurate shots, and just a fluid game flow while shutting down the Blue Hawks at the other end.
“When you lose two lefty All-Americans, it’s going to take a little bit of time to adjust,” Cameron said. “It’s still a work in progress. But we moved the ball, had a lot more passes, the ball swung east-west a lot more. We were a lot more patient, we were playing faster, but were slower to take shots.”
Jackson Warner added two goals while sophomores Evan Bates and Zach Fortier also scored for Guertin. Exeter goalies Ronan Wilbur and James Bernich combined for eight stops.
It was a big sigh of relief for Cardinal players, who were hoping that practice would make perfect and they’d have their groove back.
“We didn’t have that many practices under our belt with the offense we were working with,” Schmitt said. “I feel like this game, and the past week we had, we really figured out our offense.”
Neither team was going to show its full hand as they see each other again at Bill Ball Stadium a week from Thurssday, May 28 .
“We were trying to do some different things and see what was going to stick,” Brewster said. “We play them again next week. I’m not really concerned. I think it was good for us to watch, be a part of, and good learning for them.”
“Exeter’s a good team, we weren’t going to show too much,” Cameron said. “We’re going to be ready for their best again.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH boys lacrosse: Exeter falls to surging Bishop Guertin, 13-5