Telegraph photo by TOM KING Merrimack's Erin Knauer shoots right at Bishop Guertin's Lindsay Hult (17) despite the outstretched stick of the Cards' Madeline Hartsock in the first half of BG's 4-1 Division I prelim win on Wednesday at Stellos Stadium.

NASHUA – It will be one of the great mysteries of the fall, where the switch was hidden at Stellos Stadium on Wednesday afternoon that the Bishop Guertin High School field hockey obviously flipped on.

That had to be what the Cardinals did just before the second half began to gain a decisive 4-1 Division I preliminary round win over Merrimack, right?

The Cardinals were down 1-0 at the break, had a couple of threats but nothing like the offensive barrage they put on the Tomahawks defense and goalie Natalia Gonzalez in the final 30 minutes. As a result they move on to face Keene in a regional final (overall quarterfinal) on Saturday, supposedly at Stellos. The Blackbirds ousted Nashua North, 6-0.

“Honestly, I think we just beared down on the ball,” Cards senior forward Brooke Yabroudy said. “We were connecting and getting open. Our intensity was upbeat.”

“It was like a complete turnover,” a shell shocked Merrimack coach Ann MacLean said. “They’re fast. They were more confident. … It was like a switch. …I haven’t seen that.”

Cards assistant coach Cam Hult said he and head coach Erica Chareth basically asked the BG players a simple question.

“At halftime both of us said, ‘You have 30 minutes left, do you want it to be your last half or do you want to keep advancing on?’,” Hult said. “I think the girls realized they didn’t want their season to end there and they came out ready to play and showed it in the second half.”

“We never stepped back,” Chareth said. “We just kept firing and would let (the Tomahawks) respond. … It was a great half.”

The tally was three goals in a span of 7:24, started by the first of two by Stephanie Coloumbe nearly three minutes into the second half. Brooke Yabroudy added a one-time tip-in off a shot by freshman Taylor Guibord three minutes later, the Cards (4-2) added one more and then Coloumbe finished the scoring four minutes into the third.

Guertin was able to get right on top of Gonzalez (six saves) and simply dominating possession and position. It was such a contrast to the first half, in which the Tomahawks scored early on a goal by Paige Rivet, assisted by Avery Hui, just 2:36 into the contest.

But thanks to the play of senior goalie Monina Tosi (five saves, one spectacular sprawling stop) BG kept it to a 1-0 deficit through the rest of the half.

“I was very proud of them holding them to that one,” Chareth said. “(Tosi) was very strong in net.”

The other key for Guertin was Guibord, who moved up to forward after Rylee Bouvier had to quarantine after and out-of-region college visit. She not only did the job but stated here claim to the position for her next three seasons.

“I give her a ton of props,” Hult said. “A lot of freshman in high pressure situations tend to crumble. When you see her take on that pressure,she embraces it.”

“They’re good,” MacLean said of the Cards. “They’re going to give teams problems the rest of the way.”

KEENE 6, NASHUA NORTH 0

The Titans saw their season come to an end as the host Blackbirds were in control most of the way. It was North’s first postseason appearance in at least four years.

Keene is now slated by the bracket to come to Stellos Saturday to face BG, but all fall the ‘Birds have been prohibited from traveling to Nashua area by school officials due to the pandemic. Stay tuned.