Bishop Guertin's Nick Dahl, left, knocks the ball away from Pinkerton's Andy MacDonald during Tuesday night's 14-8 BG win at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Remember that first half.

The Bishop Guertin High School boys lacrosse team would love to bottle up the intensity and their play of the first 24 minutes of Tuesday night’s 14-8 win over Pinkerton Academy at Stellos Stadium.

The second half, not so much.

But it was still a win in this storied lacrosse rivalry, when usually the teams will say see you in the finals after their one meeting. But in this pandemic year of different schedules, they play each other again in two days in Derry.

“The intensity was great, where it needed to be,” Cards coach Chris Cameron said, as his team led 9-1 at halftime. “But then it just fell off. When you play the way we play, it’s like a full court press in basketball, we’re just on you. Then we lost that intensity. When you’re up 9-1 sometimes it’s tough to keep that intensity.”

Still, the closes the Astros (3-1) would get was 2-1 early on, and then to within six goals a couple of times the rest of the way.

“A tough start,” Pinkerton coach Steve Gaudreau said. “We knew we’d have to come out and play, and it took us a while to adjust. At this point in the year, fourth game of the year, you’re making adjustments on the fly. … the good thing for us was the effort was there. …

“I think we showed we want to get better, and that’s what it’s all about at this point in the year.”

And at this point in the year, it’s perhaps time for others to shine. Guertin was without injured top senior scorer Dawson Clark, but that gave time for a freshman, Brady Dumont, to strut his stuff. All he did was score four goals, his last two in the fourth quarter to help keep the Astros at bay.

“You give him time and room, he’s going to finish,” Cameron said. “I’ve never used the expression ‘Next man up’, but that’s what it is.”

“We struggled to clear the ball early on,” Gaudreau said.

But Cameron felt the Cards still need to improve on their scoring.

“We had the ball an awful lot to just have 14 goals,” he said. “That 9-1 first half could’ve been 14-1. But to Pinkerton’s credit, they played hard and they played tough all the way through.”

Also for BG, Declan Wilkie, Michael Kiely (with three assists) and Tim Kiely each had two goals, while Nick McGovern, Aidan Ahearn, Connor Bouvier and Xander Dunsmoor each had single scores. Chris Heitmiller had two assists.

But Cameron loved the defensive efforts of John Sullivan and Ahearn, and Matt Cranney holding Pinkerton’s standout Hunter Drouin to one goal.

Pinkerton got three goals each by Joey Gallo and Riley Spellman, and one by Michael Uber.

For the Cards, goalies Zach Connerty had four saves in the first half, and Dylan Steward was a bit busier in the second with six stops, a couple of them in big moments.

And now it’s off to Derry.

“With these two-game sets, you can’t really focus (on the win),” Cameron said. “You beat Pinkerton, you want to celebrate the win, but you can’t because you have to get right back at it. We turn around in two days, and it’ll be tough. Now we have to make some adjustments, because of what happened in the second half.”

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