Bishop Guertin assistant girls soccer coach Kelly McCormick consoles Cards goalkeeper Ashlyn Guerrette after Timberlane's 2-1 Division I quartefinal win Friday in Plaistow.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

PLAISTOW – When push came to shove, the defending champions were kicked out.

Basically, that’s what happened as the No. 5 Bishop Guertin High School girls soccer team was vanquished by the No. 4 Timberlane Owls, 2-1, in Friday’s Division I quarterfinals.

In short, the Cardinals spotted the Owls a 2-0 lead in the first 15 minutes, got a goal on a 30-yard free kick from Alyson Guerrette to cut the margin in half by the half, and spent most of the final 40 minutes assaulting Owls’ goalkeeper Arden Ferrari-Henry, but to no avail.

And thus a highly successful chapter of Guertin soccer came to an end. Players like seniors Brooke Paquette, Katie Boudreau, and Alyson Guerrette, among many others, did their darndest offensively to keep it going. Paquette appeared to have gotten pushed deep in Owl territory in front of an official in the final minute, but got no call.

That’s when fate took over, but the Owls were blocking shot after shot as well. Both coaches felt it was a carbon copy of a a 2-1 Timberlane win early in the season in Nashua.

“We threw a lot at them, just like the first game,” Cards coach Winston Haughton said. “But they were resolute.”

“I thought it was a war,” Owls coach Jeff Baumann said. “I thought we got off to a good start, and towards the end of the first half we started to let down a little bit, and it was a game of momentum at that point. In a weird way it was very similar to the first time we played them.

“Their championship pedigree a little bit, too, give them credit. But I thought it was a very gutsy performance for us.”

It looked like the 16-2 Owls would run away with it. Isabella Keogh scored just a few minutes in, and then about seven minutes later, after a brilliant diving save by Cards keeper Ashlyn Guerrette (five stops), Norah Barry pounced on the rebound and just like that the 14-3-2 Cards were down 2-0.

“You saw it, we gave them two goals, a little bit too much to fall back,” Haughton said.

Bishop Guertin’s Renee LeBlanc (12) and Timberlane’s Maia Parker battle for the ball during Friday’s Division I quarterfinal in Plaistow. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But the second half, even though Timberlane had a couple of chances, the Cards dominated. Martha Lord will want one back that just sailed high over the goal, and Boudreau will want to retake an open shot that grounded wide of the goal. And Paquette and others were in the middle of a scrum in front of Ferrari-Henry, but to no avail. Guertin was franticly buzzing all around the Owls goal, especially in the final few minutes.

So many chances, but in the end, too little time.

Haughton was disappointed there was no call late to give the Cards a free kick.

“Two hands on (Paquette’s) back, and the referees, who’d been calling everything else, decide to not do it,” Haughton said. “But it is what it is.”

Now the Cards say good-bye to nine seniors, including a longtime nucleus of Paquette, Boudreau, Kate Daley and Renee LeBlanc, to name a few. Returning keys will be Lord, the Guerrettes, as well as Maddy Maloney.

“Yeah every year,” Haughton said. “Every year there’s a crop that goes. But obviously this year’s crop will be sorely missed.”