It would be tough to find defensive performances in lacrosse better than the one BC High turned in against Xaverian in Friday’s Division 1 quarterfinal.

And, luckily for the Eagles, they found a little offense just when they needed it, as well.

With a smothering effort on one side of the field, and efficient scoring on the other, No. 4 seed BC High beat No. 5 Xaverian, 7-2, to advance to the Final Four.

The Eagles (14-7) will face fellow Catholic Conference rival St. John’s Prep after besting another in Xaverian (11-10).

“Our practice (produced that result),” BC High coach Marcus Craigwell. “(Assistant) coach (Nick) Kline put together a scheme on defense that we were confident in. We put our players in the best situation to find success. We just executed, executed, executed, from our faceoff all the way through D, through the offense.”

Goalie Charlie McCullough made 12 saves for BC High, including six in the critical fourth quarter. Nick Emsing led BC High offensively with three goals. Tripp Schuhwerk added two goals, while Gavin Barth and Luke Allen scored one apiece.

It was simply a complete win for the Eagles, who led throughout.

But it was not assured until late. BC High led 4-1 entering the fourth quarter. Xaverian answered though with a goal from Dante Mariani less than a minute into the quarter.

The Eagles responded. Eming scored with a long shot from straight on to push the BC High lead to 5-2 with 5:32 left.

Only seven seconds later, Barth scored to give BC High what was an insurmountable 6-2 edge.

When Allen scored his a little less than three minutes later, he leapt in the air and howled in delight, as he knew victory was assured.

On the other end, McCullough was doing his thing, as Xaverian just could not beat him. The defense was making sure the shots were manageable, but McCullough was dominant.

“Defense puts you in position to make saves,” McCullough said. “That’s really only what you can do. I really couldn’t ask more from the team, from my rides, from my clears. That’s what they’ve been doing all week. Great to see that show in the game.”

McCullough’s performance had Craigwell’s attention.

“He’s our All-American, regardless of what people think. He was a senior in that game, a senior All-American in that game. We have so much faith in him. If we give him shots that he can see, he’s going to save them all. He’s legit. He was so relaxed in cage, I think that was the difference between now and the game before. He just saw the ball, and we have faith in him,” he said.

And the offense did just enough.

“I think it’s kind of what we preach in practice,” Craigwell said. “Stay the course. Stay locked in. Our time’s going to come. It might not come the first minute, second minute, but it will start rolling. It was close. Those are the type of games we want. We practice, too, and we have great practices.”