Bishop Guertin's Katherine Campel, right, tries to stay close to Bedford's Eliana Enners as Cards goalie Makenna Reekie keeps her eye on the play during BG's 12-7 win Thursday night at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – When all the girls lacrosse strategy gets examined and details get sorted out, one thing Thursday night was clear at Stellos Stadium:

There was really one player that stood between the Bedford Bulldogs and a win over rival Bishop Guertin: Cards goalie Makenna Reekie.

And Reekie, who had 12 saves, wasn’t about to let that happen in a 12-7 Cardinals win in a rematch of last year’s semifinal classic.

“She was insane,” Cards coach Leslie Why said. “She can really do a lot of tracking because of the way they play. The things she didn’t stop were outside shots or if there was a screen. … She doesn’t stand and wait, she’s always the aggressor.”

“We were prepping ourselves for this game, really excited to play a high level team,” Reekie said. “I was just trying to not look at the body and look more at the ball. I just tried to watch the ball.”

“We were getting some good looks, but our shot selection wasn’t great and their goalie was tracking the ball really well,” Bulldogs coach Christine Hodgdon said. “When we did beat her it was off a fake, or we shot really well when our hands were free, or off a feed. That’s the way you beat that kind of goalie.”

But the Bulldogs just never did that enough in this battle of previous unbeatens, falling to 11-1 while the Cards, who never trailed, are now 11-0-1 and have another tough contest with out-of-state foe Franklin, Mass. Saturday here at 1 p.m.

The game was tied 1-1 early when BG’s Rylee Bouvier put BG up for good, 2-1, on a give-and-go with 18:14 left.

BG, which struggled on draws and had 18 turnovers, somehow led 5-3 at the half and 6-4 early in the third quarter. The turning point came with a couple of Bulldog penalties ignited a five-goal Guertin run as Bedford was held without a goal for a whopping 19 minutes. Sydney Grogan’s goal with 3:20 left with her team trailing 11-4 began a three-goal Bulldog rally that fell way short. Grogan had three toals to lead the Bulldogs while Julian Bell had a pair.

“We never give up,” Hodgdon said. “We still just dug a hole, and if we had five more minutes left, it might have been a difference maker. But you can’t let teams like that get on a run.”

“Communication was really a key with our defense,” Cards defensive leader Delaney Ramalho said. “And Makenna had an incredible game. She’s just really been on fire this season.”

“Defensively I think we played great,” Why said. “We were really prepared for the way they play. Offensively I think we could have done a little more with being creative and accessing our toolbox a little more than we did.”

Bedford did a great job defensively as well, holding Bouvier to three goals. But BG had two other hat tricks by Lauren Redfern and Natalie Coutu (who had three assists), and got a pair from Tess Prunier (with two assists), the last one with just 0.8 seconds left.

“I loved the environment with my team,” Redfern said. “It really hyped me up. I’m from Bedford so it felt really good to beat them.”

But it probably wouldn’t have happened without Reekie.

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