Bishop Guertin's Quinn Cepiel is bothered by Exeter's Harry Carraciola (16) during the Cards' 17-10 win Tuesday at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The temperature when the Bishop Guertin and Exeter High School boys lacrosse teams meet again should be about 20-30 degrees warmer.

That’s about the only thing the Cardinals want to see changed from Tuesday night. They enjoyed a great second half, turning a 6-4 lead at the break into a 17-10 win at Stellos Stadium in a game that should be a preview of a state Division I semis or title game in June.

Clearly, the Cards upped their game over the final 24 minutes.

“Turnovers, we cut those back, and the shooting,” Cameron said. “We shot better. They’re goalie (Ethan Bernich, 22 saves) played great, kept them in it. But 17 against Exeter is pretty good, especially when we turned it over as much as we did.”

The Cards actually trailed, 2-1 early, and it was 2-2 after one period. They looked like they would run away and hide with a four-goal run with four different scorers but the Blue Hawks got a pair in the final 1:37 and had a chance for a third with a man up in the final seconds of the half.

They did close to within 6-5 on a goal by Marshall Lasewicz nearly two minutes into the third, but that was the last time it was close. Cepiel tallied to make it 7-5, followed by 22 at 8-5. After Aiden Drunsic scored to pull the Blue Hawks to within 8-6, Guertin pulled away and it was 12-7 by quarters end. Two more to start the fourth made it 14-7 and things were in hand.

“At that point, we had to play smart,” Cameron said. “We

re better when we’re sharing the ball. … once we start playing as a team.”

Now the 9-1 Blue Hawks, who opened some eyes with a one-goal win the other day over Acton-Boxborough (Mass.), look toward a possible future meeting.

“We got better today, we learned some stuff, we’ll move on,” Exeter coach Matt Brewster said. “They’re a good team, have a good coach, they’re going to obviously show us where we need to make adjustments, and we’ll do that.

“We got better today, learned some stuff about ourselves, all in all, a success.”

The one thing they learned? Guertin’s J.J. Murphy is a dominant faceoff man, as he controlled most of them during the contest when he was out there.

“It’s tough for teams to go on runs when they lose so many faceoffs,” said Cameron, who estimated his team, mainly with Murphy, won 27 of 30. “We’re young, and there are a lot of habits we’re trying to break. Exeter played really well, they came with some energy. … But when you give up that many possessions, it’s tough.”

Tim Kiely and Connor Guibord each had hat tricks for BG, while Kevin Broderick had two and nine others had single goals: Cepiel, Murphy, Xander Dunsmoor, Michael MacDonough, Connor Hughes, Mitchell Lynch, Caleb Young, Connor Bouvier and Aiden Laurendeau.

Drunsic led the Blue Hawks with four goals, while freshman Lasewicz added three. BG goalie Zach Connerty had 12 stops.

This was more or less a must win for Guertin, which suffered its first loss last weekend vs. Connecticut’s Staples High School. And Thursday the Cards are out of state again at Boston College High. Cameron wants his team to know things aren’t going to be as easy as they may think.

“They’re probably going to run the table, based on their schedule,” Cameron said of the Blue Hawks. “They’ll probably be the No. 1 seed. … They (his team) got exposed against Staples, and now maybe they’ll start buying into it a little bit, believing.”

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