He knows it’s a cliche, but he’s going to say it anyway. He’s going to repeat it over and over again.

“Defense wins championships,” said Bishop Guertin head coach Tony Johnson at least six times in a four-minute conversation. He’s only pointing out what his Cardinals, laden with Bedford players, proved in the Division II football championship on Saturday, Nov. 22.

BG’s offense created a 14- point first-quarter cushion against defending champion Exeter, then watched the boys on the other side of the ball build a nearly impenetrable wall as Guertin held on for a 14-7 victory.

“We talked about it at halftime and said the defense is going to have to win this game, and they did,” said Johnson. “I mean, how many times did we have our backs against the wall? How many fumbles did we have?”

The Cardinals allowed the ball to slip from their hands six times and gave it away three of those miscues, twice inside their own 30. They also turned the ball over once on an interception, had a long field goal blocked and allowed Exeter to convert a fake punt attempt.

“I knew we had to score 21, 28 to put them away, and you know ... we kind of let down,” said Johnson.

“We didn’t have the opportunity to breathe, we didn’t have the opportunity to relax, but fortunately our defense came through.”

Guertin’s D allowed one 99- yard drive after the Blue Hawks picked off a pass midway through the second quarter. Junior Nick Carluccio made a touchdown-saving open-field tackle on a 49-yard run by Exeter quarterback Andrew Kukesh, but the Blue Hawks found the end zone for the first and last time with 1:01 remaining in the half.

After that, BG’s front seven rarely allowed a play past the line of scrimmage, and when Kukesh threw long, the secondary denied everything.

Guertin forced three turnovers on downs, recovered two Exeter fumbles and snagged two INTs. Carluccio hopped on one fumble and picked off a fourth-quarter pass in the end zone.

“(Carluccio) is a vintage strong safety kid in a non-strong safety defense. You know, instead of play three (defensive backs), we can play four. If I want to play five linebackers I can play five ... He gives me flexibility,” said Johnson. “He had a great game. We’ve got speed out there, and we ran things down. They never really broke anything because of our speed. The defense came up big.”

And Carluccio wasn’t the only local contributor.

Everywhere, it seemed, a Bedford standout made a play.

While pitching in from his defensive safety position, including an interception to end the game, Andy Vailas paced the offense by running for two early touchdowns, including a 69-yard option scamper three minutes into the contest. He also found pay dirt on a 12-yard run with 3:15 remaining in the first quarter.

Junior running back Adam Hall contributed to the rushing attack throughout the game, lineman Mike Flynn was a force in the trenches, Chris Green solidified a staunch linebacking corps, Matt Bayne locked down the secondary and Nick Belviso stood out on special teams.

That’s not all. Chris Kujawski, Nick Astarita, Luke Solms, Andrew Perella, Chris Mitchell, Jake Caveny, Kevin Turner, Brett Kana and John Scheetz also contributed to Guertin’s latest conquest.

All but Vailas and Green return to help the Cardinals take aim at a fifth title in six years.

“A lot of great athletes from Bedford come to this school, and it obviously helps us out a lot,” said Carluccio, who as a sophomore was also a major part of Guertin’s 2008 lacrosse championship.

“Bedford’s going to continue being a big part of BG’s success.”