BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick boys’ lacrosse team never trailed against Lewiston in the teams’ Class A North final, and as a result, the Dragons will be heading to their fourth straight state final game after a 14-8 win Wednesday evening.
Brunswick will look to avenge last year’s title game loss with a rematch against Scarborough (12-2) on Saturday morning. Scarborough downed Thornton Academy 20-16 Wednesday. The game is set for 10 a.m. at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.
Brunswick wasted no time putting pressure on Lewiston, taking its first shot of the contest just 10 seconds into the game. Lewiston goalie Bryan Wagg deflected the shot away for the save. Less than two minutes later, Sophomore Aiden Glover pushed across the game’s first score when left unmanned off to the side, and fired it past Wagg. Lewiston gained possession off of Roman Dennis’ face off win and missed a chance to tie the score when Alex Rivet’s bounce shot missed wide. Quick goals by Andrew Eno and Christain Glover found the Blue Devils down 3-0 just over five minutes into the game. Lewiston coach Ben Fournier kept his team calm and told the boys they needed to get it going, “now.”
“Down 3-0 in high school lacrosse, that’s not a lot, so I just told them to get going and play our game,” Fourner said.
The Blue Devils responded with a Rivet score, assisted by Gunner Wade at 5:22, cutting the lead to 3-1. Brunswick didn’t stay idle long, getting another goal from Aiden Glover and senior Josh Dorr, opening the lead back to 5-1.
“We’ve seen them so much this year so we knew they’d expect us to come out scoring like we did,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said.
Lewiston continued being frustrated on offense when Garrett Poussard’s shot hit the post after an outstanding effort getting to the net. A Lewiston penalty followed by a Brunswick turnover, killed the last 20 seconds of the penalty before setting up their offense for a scoring opportunity. The opportunity came when Pat Racine moved into the net before dumping it off to Sam Payne, who unloaded it for their second score of the quarter with 13 seconds remaining, cutting the lead to 5-2.
“They are a well coached team and we always expect them to come to play,” Glover said. “They have some tremendous athletes on that team.”
Dennis won the opening face off in the the second quarter charging downfield and finding Jayden Wilson trailing off to the side. Wilson ripped a goal past Brunswick keeper Connor Pendergast, making it 5-3.
“I wanted to give my team a spark, I trust Jayden in that situation and he came through for us,” Dennis said.
That would be the closest Lewiston would get to the Dragons in the first half. Max Gramins and another Aiden Glover goal propelled Brunswick to a 7-3 halftime lead.
The two teams traded goals to open the second half while each team also hit their respective crossbars missing scoring opportunities. Ben Palizay and Glover’s fourth goal of the game jumped Brunswick out to a 10-4 lead over midway through the third quarter. Rivet scored his second goal of the game but Brunswick continued their assault scoring two more goals, including Glover’s fifth score and a Henry Doherty tally with four seconds remaining to extend their lead to 12-5 after three quarters. Brunswick goalie Connor Pendergast continued his strong game in net stopping a pair of Lewiston shots late in the third quarter to keep Brunswick in the lead. Pendergast finished with 13 saves.
“He came up big for us today, and to be big in a decisive third quarter, I couldn’t be more proud of him,” coach Glover said.
Trailing 14-5, with the game all but over with six minutes remaining, Lewiston kept up its efforts, scoring three unanswered goals, including a pair from Rivet to cut it to 14-8, but it was too late for a complete comeback. Brunswick closed out the game to remain unbeaten into the season’s final game.
“That’s our goal every year, make it to the last game. Obviously this year it is a little extra to play a rematch again but for these seniors to play their last game of each of their four years here, on state final Saturday, that’s pretty special,” coach Glover said.
“This is great for us seniors, and the rest of our program. It’s pretty cool to have us play in the state final game again,” senior Christian Glover said.
“I’m proud of our kids. They worked hard all year for us. It’s not the ending we want but we can’t be disappointed in our season,” Fournier added.
Lewiston finishes it’s season 10-5.
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