Goalkeeper Oliva Baker, center, leads the celebration for the Bishop Guertin girls soccer team after Thursday's 4-1 win over city rival Nashua North at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They figured their best offense was their defense.

Yes, you couldn’t blame the Bishop Guertin High School girls soccer team for using most of their best players in the back end in the second half of Thursday’s 4-1 win over city rival Nashua North.

They knew last year in the Division I quarterfinals they failed to protect a late 1-0 lead vs. the Sarah and Allison Frye-led Titans, and up 3-1 at the half yesterday, that wasn’t going to happen again.

“The girls were very, very focused today,” Cards coach Chris Millett said. “Like Paige Gabriel (BG sophomore back) said, everyone had their unique job to do today and they did that. It starts with defense, playing solid defense.

“Frankly, we wanted to protect the lead and we know how dangerous the Frye sisters can be so we needed to play a little more defensive in our coverage.”

It worked. Basically, the Cards did not let the Titans through game take place and kept the Fryes off the board. North’s only goal that cut a 2-0 deficit to 2-1 was a nice play by Katie Azevado during chaos after a Sarah Frye corner in the 28th minute.

BG basically frustrated the Titans, who are now 11-2 after their 10-game win streak was halted and now headed east to face 12-1 Exeter at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“They did, they’re a great team,” North coach Jacqueline Thompson said of the Cards and their strategy. “Right now we’re just playing the best and preparing for the playoffs. This is a great experience for us, we lost to them in the regular season last year. But that’s OK. …

“They’re not putting their heads down. It was just more frustrations of being out of our style. At the end of the day we need to play our game and not worry about somebody else’s. Hats off to BG for playing their game – and taking us out of ours.”

It was a wild first half. BG, now 13-1-1, scored two goals 1:17 apart right after North keeper Kathleen Schreiner made one of the best saves of the year on a Emerson Brown penalty kick.

The Titans were stoked. But they couldn’t harness that emotion, as Paige Gabriel scored from the left side in the 15th minute, and then Shelby Goldstein had a short open shot and buried it just over a minute later.

But the back breaker by BG’s offense may have been the first of two Zoe Horton-Sousa breakaway goals, coming with just under 12 minutes left in the half, fed by Charlotte Accomando. That made it 3-1 allowing Millett to play his defensive strategy.

But that strategy might have changed were it not for senior keeper Olivia Baker, who had eight saves, two of them coming on a flurry by Alli Frye. She slid and used her foot to save the first Frye shot with the Titan striker coming in alone, and then had the presence of mind to run back into the goal mouth and make a second stop on Frye who got the rebound of the first save. Amazing for BG, frustrating for Frye and North.

“I just stuck my leg out and it caught my foot and went back to her,” said Baker. “Then she came back in and I was just ready. It’s the adrenalin, the adrenalin just makes me want that, the desire to make the save to just get there. It was amazing, best game ever.”

“She came up huge today,” Millett said. “This is only her second year playing soccer for us. She learned a ton from Jess Lacroix (last year’s keeper) who is now starting at Franklin Pierce. Baker’s just a workhorse…Kudos to her for having an awesome, awesome game.”

The ball goes off of Nashua North’s Allison Frye as Bishop Guertin’s Sophia Hickey (6) watches during Thursday’s key Division I clash at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Another key was the play of BG senior defender Hadley Comeau, whose job was to be Alli Frye’s shadow on the field. “I can’t say enough of Hadley’s play today,” Millett said. “She made some awesome decisions today.”

Millett was hoping that a fast break chance might materialize as the half went on, and it did for Horton-Sousa, who scored on another breakaway with just under two minutes left.

But this was just a highly anticipated matchup that didn’t disappoint.

“This is like the Battle of the Bridge,” Thompson said. “There were a lot of high emotions that impacted it more than the style of play.”

Can we get a rematch like last year? Hopefully.

“Ultimately it was a team win,” Millett said. “I’m really, really, really proud of the girls today. I could tell that they wanted it. But kudos to North. Kudos to Jackie. They’re a phenomenal team, they’re going to make a deep run into the postseason. They’re going to be tough.”

Which is what the Cards were yesterday.