Bishop Guertin's Rocco Roy snares a TD catcth of a Nate Bowen pass against Salem's Ryan Bryant (6) during the first half of Saturday night's BG 42-28 win over the Blue Devils at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Sometimes that halftime break can work wonders.

Take Saturday night’s Division I clash between Bishop Guertin and Salem at Stellos Stadium, for example. Cards coach Anthony Nalen knew something had to change with his team down 28-21 in trying to match points with an explosive Salem offense.

So what to do? Play keep-away, and it worked wonders as the Cards (4-0 overall, 3-0 in Division I) ran 28 plays to Salem’s 13 in the final two quarters, helping to keep Salem off the board while BG pulled away for a 42-28 win.

“We got in the locker room, we made some adjustments to some of their stuff and get more hats to the ball,” Guertin coach Anthony Nalen said, and added “I tell the guys this all the time. The first two drives of the second half are the most important. We go down, we score and we get the ball back. If we go three-and-out and they score, the game’s probably over.”

The Cards took the second half kickoff and marched 65 yards in seven plays with QB Nate Bowen plunging in from 2 yards out and booting the PAT 53 seconds into the third quarter.

On the Salem side the Blue Devils (2-2) had scored on four of their six first-half possessions, the final one was a case of running out the clock. But in the second half Salem ran just 13 plays, they had a three-and-out on their first possession and the Cards put together a classic 16-play, 96-yard drive, running it on 13 of them. Ironically, they scored through the air, a 9-yard Bowen TD pass to Hudson Schmitt to give the Cards the lead for good at 35-28 with 9:57 left in the game.

The totals for BG’s offense were incredible, 582 yards – 280 on the ground with five players running the ball, while Bowen threw for 302.

“I think we have an offense that can score quick,” Nalen said, “but I also think we have an offense that can slow the game down and have a methodical drive. We just tried to slow it down and keep the (BG) defense off the field.”

And the Salem offense off the field as well. The Blue Devils have premier playmakers in juniors Calvin Salkovitz and Jordan Zannini and they were such return threats that BG had to pooch or ground kickoffs and give the Devils a half a field, rather than have either one return the kicks for a TD.

Salem got a 14-0 lead on Van Mason’s QB sneak to cap the opening drive and a Salkovitz 64-yard run. The Cards answered with a 25-yard TD by Will Adams and Bowen’s 29-yard TD pass to Rocco Roy. The teams then traded TDs, a Jacob Beaudry 12-yard run for Salem and Adams 2-yard run for BG (set up by a Roy 47-yard reception) before Salkovitz went on another journey of 52 yards with 6:08 left in the half for the 28-21 lead.

“It was a bad first half and we were only down by seven,” Nalen said.

And then came the second half, some pass but a lot of ground and pound for BG with four returning linemen from a year ago – Max Moynihan, Sam Doty, Bishop Kearns, and Dom Grande – plus 252-pound freshman Vincent Nalen. Yikes.

“You can’t give them stuff,” Salem coach Steve Abraham said. “Two times in the red zone and we turn it over. They’re (BG) gigantic. They just kept pounding. They’re a good offense. They’re going to be able to beat anybody because of their offense.”

Bishop Guertin’s Will Adams (23) gets a head start on Salem’s Brody Longtin (4) and Jewry Nunez (2) as Cards QB Nate Bowen likes what he sees during Saturday nights Division I game at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The key play came when the Devils fumbled the ball when they got to the BG 12 yard line with just under six minutes to play. The ball bounced off the Motta Field turf right into the hands of Guertin’s Drew Redfern, and he raced 43 yards to the Salem 43. Seven plays later, the Cards Logan Curran ran it in from 7 yards out and Bowen’s PAT gave BG a critical two-score advantage, 42-28, with just under three minutes to play.

“Sometimes you get lucky,” Nalen said. “Totally different game if they score right there.”

Guertin’s Curran picked off a Mason pass in the red zone to seal the deal.

“We did a lot of good things, you just can’t turn it over,” Abraham said. “When we did touch it, we screwed it up. … But I’ll go to battle with our guys. We’re tough. We played hard tonight. Just made too many mistakes.”

“We can throw the ball when we need to, but we can shrink the game when we hav e to,” Nalen said.

And the half, that’s what the Cards decided to do. And it worked.