Sahil Mujawar helped Merrimack to a big win over Bishop Guertin on Friday night at Student Memorial Field. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

MERRIMACK — Bishop Guertin came into Merrimack’s Student Memorial Field on the first night of November with one of the state’s best-performing quarterbacks — sophomore Nathan Bowen.

Merrimack countered with two QBs — Sahil Mujawar and Cayden Dine.

And two was better than one on this night.

Each Tomahawk had touchdown passes, and Merrimack, desperate for a victory to keep its playoff hopes alive on the final weekend of the regular season, topped the Cardinals, 34-21.

Dine wasn’t really a “quarterback” per se on this night. But his only pass of the season was a beauty — a 60-yarder to fellow junior Shea Egan that gave Merrimack a 34-14 lead with 6:36 to go in the game.

Dine took a lateral from regular starting QB Mujawar, then found Egan up the left sideline behind the secondary. Egan took care of the rest on this perfect, low-60-degree early November fall night for football.

Dine had two extra-point catches and also hauled in a touchdown pass himself — Mujawar’s 56-yard bomb up the left sideline that gave the Tomahawks the lead for good (12-7) with 6:46 left in the third.

Merrimack scored all its points in an explosive second half.

Meanwhile, the Tomahawks defense kept Bowen and the Cardinals off the scoreboard for about 35 minutes between touchdown No. 1 (Julian’s Goode’s 4-yard TD, 6:59 left in the first) and touchdown No. 2 (Bowen to Sam Fayad from eight yards out 8:24 left in the fourth).

That Fayad touchdown made it 28-14 with plenty of game to go. But then came Dine’s dime to Egan less than two minutes later for Merrimack’s coup de grace in the momentum arena.

“It felt great,” Dine said. “The offensive line did what they needed to do. Sahil got the ball to me. I saw Shea down the field, and he made a great play on the ball.”

The win snapped a four-game losing skid and kept Merrimack’s playoff hopes alive. It improved to 3-5 in Division I (3-6 overall), while playoff-bound Guertin dropped to 5-4, 4-4 in Division I.

The Cardinals looked poised on offense in the early going, cashing in for a 7-0 lead 5:01 into the game on an 11-play, 79-yard drive capped by Goode’s plunge on fourth down. Senior AJ Holmes was huge on the drive, with first-down runs of nine, 11 and five.

But Guertin — and its signal-caller – went cold until its two touchdowns in the fourth.

The next seven drives after Goode’s touchdown weren’t fruitful for the visitors: Four punts and two interceptions by Merrimack’s Stephen Doyle and one by Connor Page.

In the midst of that futility came an onsides kick by Merrimack recovered by Connor Page. That opened the second half — and set up Merrimack’s first touchdown of the night: Shea Scott’s 1-yard run 2:06 into the second half.

Bowen finished 22-for-36 for 196 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Merrimack did not turn any of those interceptions into points on ensuing drives, but they were momentum-killers.

“We started off really hot and then one thing led to another and we had to fight back in the second half,” Bowen said, adding Merrimack’s defense was “pretty tough. You could tell they really wanted it.”

His counterpart, Mujawar, threw for around 150 yards, had a TD pass and ran for another touchdown. The Tomahawks had success on the ground with around 250 yards total.

“We came out in the opening of the game and played pretty well,” Merrimack coach Kip Jackson said. “We just didn’t finish our drives. One of the big differences in the game was in the second half we actually managed to finish drives. (Nathan) is obviously a great player, a great athlete. But our kids came ready to play and I think we put ourselves in a good position to make plays on offense and defense.”