Bishop Guertin's Brooke Paquette (6) fights the double team of Pinkerton's Caitlin Seleny (7) and Elise Saab (11) during the Cards' 1-0 loss at the hands of the Astros Thursday at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – That didn’t last long.

The Bishop Guertin High School girls soccer team was on top of the state, the region, and the country a couple of days ago.

But all that has changed thanks to Thursday’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Pinkerton Academy, knocking the Cardinals from the ranks of the unbeaten and likely off their perch.

News came Tuesday that Guertin was in a three-way tie for the top spot in the country according to the United Soccer Coaches, who also ranked them tops in New England. They were already on top of the Division I standings thanks to their 13-0 record.

They may still stay in first place, but none of that was on the minds of the Cards after the Astros pulled off the upset, thanks to a goal by Maddie Connors off a corner kick scramble in the 63rd minute. They were just trying to deal with a frustration they hadn’t felt since last year’s semifinal loss to Exeter. At least this time, they have a tournament to look forward to in two weeks.

“I have no doubt we’ll bounce back,” Guertin coach Winston Haughton said. “It’s not a championship final, but the regular season, as they call it. We’ll have to take it.”

The Astros, now 12-2-2, celebrated the upset as if it were a big tourney win, as one would expect.

“They’re pumped,” Pinkerton coach Danielle Rappa said. “They were excited to play, they love playing good teams, they get to step up. I think they’ll be remembering this for awhile. … They were putting their body in front of every ball today.”

Exactly, as it was a physical tug of war, one that the Cards thought they had struck first in at 24:02 on an indirect kick by Alyson Guerette. Gurrette hooked it into the upper corner of the net, unreachable for Astros netminder Libby Williams.

But, just as the ball had left Guerette’s foot, the whistle blew for an encroachment call on Astros back Caitlin Seleny, fooled by a BG fake. Gurrette then tried to hit the same spot, but it sailed wide of the net.

“Quite a bizarre call,” Haughton said. “The ball went in the back of the net and he blew for encroachment, when at that stage you can’t blow when the ball’s flying in the net for encroachment.

“And you’re not going to (be able) to put the same ball in the same spot two times in a row.”

Guertin’s other best chance occurred when Katie Boudreau, with the Astro defense all over her as Williams came out to challenge, managed to trickle a shot through that ever so slowly was rolling toward the end line for an apparent 1-0 Guertin lead – until Seleny came out of nowhere to boot it safely away in the 57th minute a foot from the line. Ouch.

“She saved the play, it was a good play by (Seleny),” Haughton said.

The other factor was a 45-minute delayed start. Guertin had the game slated to start at 4 p.m., the Astros at 4:30, and to make it worse their bus pickup was late.

“You can’t be ready for 4 o’clock and then hang around 45 minutes,” Haughton said. “So that kind of put us off-stride. But we did get going, the first half was a well-fought game. And (the Astros) played well as well.”

After a scoreless first half during which Guertin clearly had the territorial edge, the Astros turned the tables with a big push from the middle of the field and BG goalie Erin Morris (six saves) was suddenly under siege, saved once by the crossbar.

“We talked about our midfield playing up more to our wings to connect,” Rappa said. “So in the second half we kind of adjusted our attack a little bit. … We were happy to keep it 0-0 after the first half because BG is so good. So that gave us a little bit of momentum in the second half.”

“They dropped an extra player in there, the ball kept popping out to her,” Haughton said. “But I just thought they fought well the entire game, their back line was strong.

Haughton cringed when he saw a ball go off of a leaping Morris’ hands and out of bounds, leading to the fateful corner kick taken by the Astros Sofia Cmilovic.

“They had been putting in good corners all night,” he said, “so (that was) the last thing we really wanted to face. It ended up being a key moment.”

And now the Cards have to avoid staying in that moment, as they have a tough road game at Hanover next Tuesday and then have to turn around Wednesday and host rival Bedford. The Bulldogs also suffered their first loss the other night to Portsmouth, another contender Guertin blanked a few weeks ago here.

“I just emphasized what we have to do, what we have been doing, and what we need to do right,” Haughton said of his postgame message to his players. “And when it’s not done, this is what can happen.”

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