Bishop Guertin's Meghan Stack puts up a shot through the Concord double team of Delany Duford (33) and Sophia Payne during Friday night's quarterfinal win in Nashua. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

They have both had championship aspirations from the start of the regular season, and both went into the postseason as their sport’s top seed.

And now it’s time for that next step before reaching the finals for the Bishop Guertin High School girls hockey and basketball teams.

The Guertin skaters, now 14-2-3, will take on one of the two teams that beat them this year, No. 4 Bishop Brady-Trinity-Londonderry (14-4), at 5 p.m. at Concord’s Everett Arena.

Then, at 7:30 p.m., Cardinal fans can head back down Route 93 to Londonderry High School to see the No. 1, 19-0 Cards take on No. 4, 15-3 Goffstown in the Divison I girls basketball semis.

Both teams survived tough quarterfinals on Friday. The Cardinal skaters edged Keene-Monadnock-Fall Mountain 3-2, while the Guertin girls, who have dominated teams all year, started off slow in a 29-all first half vs. Concord in Friday’s quarters before going on to a 66-48 win.

GIRLS HOCKEY

The Cards should be boosted greatly by the return of scoring forward Jenna Lynch, arguably the state’s best player. Lynch was away in German on a school trip. Lynch also missed the 4-1 loss at the hands of BLT a couple of weeks ago with an apparent injury.

But she should make a huge difference, as should the memory of last year’s tough semifinal loss to Hanover. Two years ago BG got past Hanover in OT to advance to the finals and win the state title.

“We’re ready, we’re excited, the girls really worked hard,” Cards coach Phil DeVita said. “The girls from last year know what it’s like to be there, what it takes to go. We’ve got girls (like Lynch) who have been there and won it, and girls who came up short last year.

“We’re going to hit the ground running and be ready to play. Team hockey, it could be anybody (who sparks them).”

The winner faces the winner of the other semi that will follow at 7:30, No. 2 Oyster River-Portsmouth vs. No. 3 Hanover, in Saturday’s finals at Manchester’s SNHU Arena. That time has yet to be determined.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Guertin coach Brad Kreick certainly wasn’t happy after his team had to struggle for the first two-plus quarters against hot shooting Concord. And he said after that one that if the Cards play that way in the Final Four, they wouldn’t survive.

“When you’re OK coasting through the first half of a game, you’re living very, very dangerously,” Kreick said. “You don’t really know if you can rely on a late third quarter, fourth quarter run. I hope it’s a lesson learned.”

Guertin beat Goffstown 73-47 in the season open waaaay back on Dec. 13, and that was an eight-point game in the third quarter.

“I don’t think anybody remembers that,” Kreick said. “It looked like a comfortable win, but it was anything but.”

Plus, while the Cards have a tough trio in Brooke Paquette, Olivia Murray and Meghan Stack, Goffstown has perhaps the state’s best scorer in Ava Winterburn.

“A flat out monster offensively, averaging 26 a game,” Kreick said. “In tournament games, you get a kid that hangs 30, 35 on you, you never know.”

The winner will take on the winner of the early 5:30 semifinal between Portsmouth and Bedford on Sunday at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym, time to be determined.