It’s been assumed for the last couple of years, but now it’s official:

We all know that the high school lacrosse capital of New Hampshire is on Lund Road in Nashua.

There’s no debate; the Cardinals of Bishop Guertin this spring ruled both the boys and girls Division I landcape with championships.

Was it expected? Pretty much. In both this was a different type of year with the regional scheduling to reduce pandemic wary travel. The setup in the boys tourney produced a Division I state final that had the top two teams playing in Bishop Guertin and Exeter.

The girls, not so much. The random semifinal draw had Guertin playing Bedford just over a week ago, and that clearly was a game for the title, as shown by the Cardinal girls’ easy win over Pinkerton in the final, 21-3 at Exeter’s Bill Ball Stadium last Tuesday.

That was a lot different than the drama-filled 11-9 BG win over the Bulldogs in the semis in the fog at Bedford’s Bulldog Stadium, a week prior to the boys’ 9-7 strategic, hard-fought win over Exeter. Something about that place produces close games as Hollis Brookline and Portsmouth produced a classic in the Division II girls title game last Wednesday, won by Portsmouth 8-7 with three unanswered goals in the final few minutes.

It’s just a question now of what the future holds for the makeup of the sport in New Hampshire high school circles. There may be a need for a fourth division in both genders, or some teams will need to move down from Division I; there’s a lot of inequity and levels. No one benefits from games like 21-1 or 20-4, etc. But right now they’re going to happen. In girls, Nashua South for example was on both sides of those contests, losing big to BG but romping over some teams that struggle, like Manchester Memorial.

Guertin, of course, has its strength in the fact its players are just about year round in both genders, many with the New Hampshire Tomahawks program and some with others.

Pinkerton was playing the sport long before it became part of the NHIAA’s spring package. They and Guertin have ruled it on the boys side and often on the girls side the last decade; this was a “down” year for the Astro boys (still a semifinalist) and the girls weren’t quite a strong (still a finalist). Yet while there’s no question the Cardinals on the boys side have been dominant with 16 straight finals appearances, a lot of those title games have been hard fought to the end. Just ask the Guertin players after their 9-7 win Saturday in which they trailed 4-0 to a team they had beaten by a combined 19 goals in two games. And it was tied at one point in the second half.

Cards coach Chris Cameron was right, he knew the Blue Hawks would try to slow the pace down because they simply, while used to playing fast, found out in a 21-8 loss a month ago they couldn’t run and gun with BG.

Guertin’s scoring ability came through in the end, but it was a game in which they had to overcome adversity to win. Just like the BG girls did in the semis.

So yes, lacrosse has its issues. And yes, BG rules the Division I game in the state in both genders.

But keep in mind these titles weren’t simply handed to Cardinals. At some point, they had to earn them. And that is indeed good for the sport.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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