Bishop Guertin QB Matt Santosuosso (8) follows Jakob Baker (84) but gets wrapped up by the Windham defense led by Dom Fiore (39) duirng Saturday's rain-soaked contest in Windham. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

WINDHAM – It was wet, muddy, and just downright nasty at Windham High School on Saturday, and the Bishop Guertin High School football team had one last play to pull out a win.

Jakob Baker didn’t let any of that bother him. Instead, he followed the advice of his late grandfather.

And thus he snared Matt Santosuosso’s 3-yard pass in the end zone as time ran out to give the Cardinals a 27-24 win over the Jaguars.

“My grandfather always told me, ‘Zero nerves throughout the whole game’,” said Baker, who had cramped up late in the third quarter and had to briefly leave the game. “So that last play, I wasn’t nervous at all, went up, caught that, and scored a touchdown.”

And as a result the West Conference champion Cards, seeded second in the South-West cluster, go into next week’s quarterfinals with a 7-2 mark. Guertin, by all accounts, will host Salem next Saturday at Stellos Stadium at a time yet to be determined.

It was just Baker’s second reception of his high school career, as he’s made more impact as a linebacker but the Cards switched his uniform number to 84 at tight end to make him an eligible receiver a few weeks ago.

It paid off for a win that was likely much tougher than anticipated against the 1-8 Jags, who trailed 7-0 at halftime (a Santosuosso 14-yard run) but had second half leads of 8-7, 16-15 and then 24-21 before BG took over at their own 26 with 4:54 left hoping to use the running game of back Charlie Bellavance and Matt Santosuosso.

It worked, mainly thanks to the clock stopping briefly after first downs to move the chains and a 25-yard run to the 2 by Bellavance.

The Jags took three strategic encroachmant calls, hoping to draw BG into a motion penalty and the fourth try worked, moving BG from the one-inch line back to the 6. The Cards eventually found themselves at fourth and goal from the 3.

“It was definitely a smart play by them, it threw us off, and they got one of our guys to jump off-sides,” Santosuosso said. “We had a clean ball. I saw him coming right out of the 5-yard out, so I thought ‘I’ve got to throw it to him.'”

“That was a wild scenario down at the end where they were constantly jumping off-sides, jumping off-sides,” said Cards coach John Trisciani, who said he gave some thought to Santosuosso take the snap over center instead of shotgun once it got to the one or two-inch line, but opted not to because the Cards were used to the shotgun formation. “(Santosuosso) has an option there when he’s running the ball, he can keep it if he thinks he can get the edge, otherwise just flip it.”

Trisciani also tossed out the idea of a field goal to take the game to overtime as the players all wanted to go for it. Perhaps the fact the game had no real final standings impact played into it, but as Trisciani said, “We’re always trying to be aggressive. Matt’s one of our best players and so its Jakob, so if you’re going to do something, put it in their hands.”

The fact the Jags gave BG all it could handle forced Trisciani’s hand to play his starters, including Bellavance, who was held out the previous couple of weeks with a bad shoulder. The Jags followed the second half lead of back Tiger An, who finished with 121 yards and a TD on 17 carries, but 111 of it in the second half. They had three two-point conversions to go with TDs by Josh Sweeney (2-yard run, 8-7), Sam Dunham (8-yard run, 16-15), and An (9-yard run, 24-21 with 4:59 left).

The latter came on a drive that took just five plays after Bellavance had given BG a 21-16 lead with his second TD run (2 yards).

“Our coaches make the adjustments, and it’s tough to beat Windham for four quarters,” Jags coach Jack Byrne said. “A lot of teams did it, but it’s not fun, it shouldn’t be fun or comfortable to play us, and I don’t think it was comfortable to play us today, and that’s how we like it.”

“They’re record doesn’t necessarily indicate the team they have,” Trisciani said of the Jags, “and I don’t want to pull guys (out), because we don’t have the depth. And (wanted to) try to get some momentum for next week.”

Because that’s when players like Baker will use the sheer moment of the postseason for inspiration.

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