Bishop Guertin's Nate Bowen is smothered by his teammates after kicking a 37-yard field goal as time expired to beat Keene, 27-24, Saturday night at Merrimack College's Duane Stadium in North Andover, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Legend of Nate Bowen keeps growing.

A week ago the Bishop Guertin High School sophomore quarterback beat Nashua North in the final seconds with his arm.

On Saturday night at Merrimack College’s Duane Stadium, he beat the Keene High Blackbirds with his foot.

Bowen booted a 37-yard field goal as time expired to give the Cardinals a 27-24 win as BG improved to 3-2 in Division I, 4-2 overall.

“I was just thinking, I can’t really mess up here, just give it my best,” said Bowen, who had never kicked one that far before. “I knew. It just felt good off the foot. It feels really good, it’s my first time (kicking a game-winner).”

Ironically, Bowen had missed one wide left in the second quarter from 26 yards out but booted one from 30 in the third quarter to give BG a 17-10 lead at the time. For Bowen, two out of three wasn’t bad.

“He’s got a good leg, we’ve seen it in practice, we’ve seen it all year,” BG coach Anthony Nalen said. “He’s a competitor. That kick meant a lot to him, especially after the South game when the kick went wide on him. For him to pick his team up like that was awesome for him.”

But Nalen wasn’t really in a celebratory mood. That’s because the Cards blew a 24-10 second half lead, Keene knotting it up on Kasen Abbott’s 1-yard plunge and Brayden French’s third PAT kick of the game with 4:51 to play. Guertin had allowed the Blackbirds to recover not one but two on-side kicks, and a 30-yard punt return that helped set up the game winning score.

“We keep finding ways to win,” Nalen said. “But eventually when you play a really good team, we’re not going to be able to pull it out. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot … it’s just one thing after another.”

At the same time, Keene coach Linwood Patinode, while disappointed with the loss in a potential swing game that drops his team to 2-3 in Division I (3-3 overall), was thrilled with the comeback effort.

“We had good effort,” Patinode said. “We had fight. We kept fighting. I am so proud of that, I can’t tell you. … That’s high school football.”

The Cards, who were up 14-3 (Holmes 56-yard run, Reeves 15-yard TD reception) in the first half, first got an inkling Keene wouldn’t fold as they had to settle for a 14-10 halftime lead. That’s because the ‘Birds’ Eli Kopcha picked off a Bowen pass and returned it 30-yards to the Cardinal 5, setting up Peyton Gowell’s 5-yard TD run with 2:18 left in the half.

Bowen’s first field goal gave BG a 17-10 lead with 5:03 left in the third, and A.J. Holmes ran one in from a yard out with 11:36 to play. Bowen’s PAT gave Guertin a 24-10 lead.

Then came the Keene comeback. It took Blackbirds QB Kasen Abbott (12 of 28 for 186 yards, one TD, one INT) just 1:17 to move Keene 70 yards to paydirt, hitting Miles Desrosiers for a 13-yard score. The kick was good and it was 24-17.

Guertin held off another Keene push on Andre Steinbrueck’s interception at the Cards 13, but that was just postponing the inevitable. A 28-yard Colin Tinnin punt return set the Blackbirds up at the BG 36 with just over six minutes left, and four plays later Abbott and French got that tying score.

“I think they knew we were probably go through the air,” Patinode said of his players. “Everybody just kind of clamped down on that and said ‘I’m going to run a better route, I’m going to throw a better ball.”

Bishop Guertin’s Nate Bowen boots a game-winning 37-yard field goal as time expires in the Cards’ 27-24 win over Keene Saturday night at Merrimack College’s Duane Stadium in North Andover, Mass.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Bishop Guertin’s Nate Bowen boots a game-winning 37-yard field goal as time expires in the Cards’ 27-24 win over Keene Saturday night at Merrimack College’s Duane Stadium in North Andover, Mass.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But then Patinode had to watch Bowen do the same. With the game tied, a grounded kick set the Cards up at their 38 with 4:49 left, and BG kept the ball the rest of the way. They got a key pass interference penalty and Bowen hit Alex Dolan for seven yards to the Keene 28 on a fourth-and-4 pass with just under two minutes to play. But the drive stalled and the sophomore, who threw for over 300 yards last week but had to settle for 16-of 26, 169 yards, one TD, two INTs numbers, got his foot ready.

“That’s a big-time moment for a high school kid,” Patinode said. “For him to make that, that’s pretty cool.”

“They’re getting my blood pressure up,” Nalen said. “They’re making them earn it. But you know what it is, it’s a young group, sometimes they find ways to win, sometimes they find ways to lose. We were able to get one tonight, we’re happy about that.”