Bishop Guertin's Addison Wilson looks to corral the rebound off a save by BG goalie Emma Smith on a shot by Pinkerton's Lauren Kingsley during Thursday's season opener at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Bishop Guertin High School field hockey coach Katie Bourque knows better than anyone the team she sees in late August isn’t the one she’ll see in late October.

“We have stuff to build on,” she said after the Cardinals fell just short of highly touted Pinkerton Academy, 3-2 Thursday evening at Stellos Stadium. “We don’t want to be at our best right now, we want to be on the climb, we want to have stuff to build on, we definitely do after today. But I’m proud of the way we played for sure.”

The Cards looked as if they’d be the victim of a one-sided opener when Pinkerton’s Meaghan Shea scored her second goal of the game just 2:33 into the second half with a hard slap shot off a penalty corner that BG netminder Emma Smith (six saves) had no chance on.

That gave the Astros, who also scored on a Shea penalty stroke in the second quarter and Gwen Lee goal in the first, a commanding 3-0 lead.

But guess again. Spurred by Addison Wilson’s work down left wing, Guertin came alive with goals by Devyn Amico about 90 seconds after Shea’s second goal – a quick response – and then cut the margin to 3-2 with 2:28 left in the third quarter on a scramble goal in front by Ava Brennan. Wilson assisted on both.

“We’re definitely preaching play the full 60, hustle, go up and back as one, play every single minute,” Bourque said. “We’re just telling them to play hard. And they did that tonight.”

Again, Wilson was the driving force in the comeback.

“Addie came in, she did her job, she did her job, and she worked hard,” Bourque said. “She was a big part in getting those fast break opportunities, getting those second chance plays for us. She had a killer game tonight and she deserves props.”

Pinketon coach Jen Resmini, who coached Bourque in high school and with Bourque during the Windham dynasty the now-BG coach built, knew it wouldn’t be that easy for her Astros.

“BG’s a good team,” Resmini said. “I’ve known Katie since she was 14, this girl knows how to coach and we knew it was going to be a tough game…We played our passing game and executed our corners.

“It’s those things when you can never let up, right?”

Bourque said halftime adjustments helped.

“Halftime gave us time to talk through what we really wanted to fix, fix some of the body positioning, gave us a chance to regroup and get it together.”

The Cards called timeout with 38 seconds left and the ball in Pinkerton territory, but couldn’t get a shot off against Astros goalie Molly Kuncik, who like Smith had a couple of big stops.

“It’s early in the season, Pinkerton’s a great team, they’re well coached,” Bourque said. “We know we have stuff to build on; we know we can do it. … When you have athletes and the will to win like they do, anything can happen.”