Bishop Guertin's Alex Haight jumps in celebration at goalie Beau Boughter after the Cards beat Bedford 2-0 to reach the Division I title game in Manchester. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – Beau knows soccer, goaltending especially.

But more important, Beau knows Bedford.

Thus Bishop Guertin High School goaltender Beau Boughter, who is from Bedford and even has a younger brother on the No. 2 Bulldogs, was fired up and on top of his game. That was a good thing for the Cards, who needed their keeper’s eight saves to come away with a 2-0 Division I semifinal win Wednesday at Manchester Memorial’s Chabot McDonough Field.

“It meant a lot, you know,” said Boughter, whose sliding stuff save of Bulldog Ali Mirza late in the first half with the score just 1-0 was proof of that. “Going freshman year, transferring (to BG) … We played them two years, my freshman-sophomore year, I was always locked into the game. I know all these kids, I’ve played them since I was little, I just know their play style and stuff. Even though they lost, I still love all of them.”

“Big game player,” Cards coach Tyler Vandeventer said. “Seems like he’s a big-game player, the bigger the stage the more he shines.”

The stage now gets even bigger, as the win puts the Cards in Saturday night’s finals against, as it turns out, city rival No. 1 Nashua South here at Chabot McDonough Field. South held on to beat Windham 2-1 in the later semi.

But in this one, Boughter got defensive help from back James Guidry & Co., but the other key was the Cards did something that no one had done vs. No. 2, 14-1-2 Bedford all season – they took a lead. And they did it early, senior Josh Corriveau going up and blasting in a throw-in past Bulldogs keeper Tucker Brannigan just 2:20 into the contest for a 1-0 BG lead.

“That’s been our style,” Vandeventer said. “We go into every match with the mindset we’re down two. We want that early goal to kind of set our tone and go from there.”

“They started stronger than us,” Bedford coach Stuart Pepper said. “They applied their physicality on us, we knew they were going to be big and strong, we scouted them. They didn’t let us play. … We didn’t exploit the situation when we had our chances.

“We knew it was going to be a battle, but we didn’t know it was going to be that much of a battle.”

But as Pepper said, the ‘Dogs still got their chances, none better than with just under two minutes to play in the first half when Mirza, Bedford’s all-time leading scorer, broke in alone on Boughter, his good friend, and the keeper slid in front of him and made the save.

“I was thinking, I’ve played with him forever,” Boughter said. “I know he’s going to try to dribble past me, so I just put my whole body out there.”

Boughter made another big punch-out save shortly after and the Bulldogs never really seemed to be the same after that. Boughter only had three of his saves in the final 40 minutes, and when BG’s Liam Ireland – he’s had an incredible postseason – launched a 40-yard kick high into the net, that gave the Cards a 2-0 lead with 18:59 to play. It seemed like 4-0 the way things were going.

“When we walked out I actually said the first one you win at midfield, hit it,” Vandeventer said. “You could see the reaction from their players.”

And the reaction from the Cards when the final whistle blew. This is big for a program that has suffered a lot of losses over the years, even before Vandeventer’s arrival three years ago.

Bishop Guertin’s Alex Haight jumps in celebration at goalie Beau Boughter after the Cards beat Bedford 2-0 to reach the Division I title game in Manchester. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“You’re seeing the product of two or three years of losing and wanting to get better,” he said.

This year they got way better.

“It feels great,” Boughter said. “This team has put in so much work. It’s not just one person, it’s everyone.”

And now everyone gets to see quite a championship matchup.

“Just for the sake of soccer in the Nashua area, I’d love for it to be two Nashua schools,” Vandeventer said.

A couple of hours later, his wish came true.