LEWISTON — The Bigelow brothers paced a dominant Lewiston offense Tuesday, combining for six goals during an 11-2 victory over Edward Little in KVAC boys lacrosse action at Don Roux Field.
For younger brother Eli, trading goals on the field with older brother John made winning the rivalry matchup even more special.
“That’s amazing. I love that,” Eli Bigelow said. “It’s my favorite part about it.”
The Blue Devils (3-1) broke the opening stalemate before the scoreboard even broke a sweat. Sophomore Eli Bigelow slinked into the middle of the zone and fired past Red Eddies (0-2) freshman goalie Daulton David 1:17 into the game. Kyle Graves had the assist.
“It really got us going,” Eli Bigelow said. “You know, team rival, get one on the board early, it felt good. Got the team pumped up, and everyone started going from there.”
Offense from either side was quiet after that, with sloppy turnovers more prevalent than shot attempts. Lewiston then found the back of the net again seven minutes in, with Troy Poulin’s bounce shot finding its way in.
“We were trying to be patient,” Lewiston coach Ben Fournier said. “We’re trying to teach these guys that we don’t always have to go, go, go to the goal. Sometimes it’s nice to get a possession, shave a few minutes off the clock and really feel out what the defense is trying to do before we try and execute.”
The Red Eddies answered less than two minutes later when Caleb Strout converted in a man-up situation, finishing off a feed from Tyler Smith.
Lewiston had a John Bigelow would-be goal waved off for a crease violation, then Gavin Cronkhite rang the post with 30 seconds left in the first quarter. Blue Devils goalie Donald Tripp stopped Smith’s long shot with five seconds left in the frame to keep Lewiston’s 2-1 lead.
“Early, we were a little more clean with our passes, we were a little more fresh, hyped up to be able to play. And it was after that that we lost a little bit of momentum,” Edward Little coach Tom Smith said. “And we’re a very young team, so a lot of dropped passes, a lot of unforced turnovers that just really hurt us.”
The Blue Devils again started off a quarter fast, as Eli Bigelow finished a pass from Cody Dionne 41 seconds in. Lewiston also was awaiting a man-up situation due to an EL penalty before the goal. David made one stop while a man-down and the Red Eddies survived the two-minute situation.
David later stopped Nick Pelletier one-on-one midway through the quarter, but Pelletier got some revenge when he fed John Bigelow for a goal 14 seconds later.
John Bigelow scored again with five seconds left before halftime, using a quick flick off a Graves feed from behind the net to beat David. Edward Little had possession with less than a minute left in the half, but turned it over, giving the Blue Devils a chance to score, which they did, to go up 5-1.
“The effect that had on the team, you could just feel it,” Fournier said. “It’s always nice to score in the waning seconds of a half, for sure. It really starts you off on the right foot for the next one.”
David was left hung out to dry in net against Lewiston’s attack in the third. Eli Bigelow completed a hat trick four minutes in when he curled around the left post for a goal. Just over a minute later, Poulin picked up a ground ball and converted on an open shot, putting the Blue Devils up 7-1 and forcing Edward Little to call timeout.
“He is a very good goalie, and he’s only a freshman, so he’s only going to get better. He definitely kept the game much more competitive,” Smith said. “Our defense needs to do a little better job making the slide and making it so that they don’t get easy shots on the doorstep.”
The Red Eddies put a couple shots on goal during a man-up situation — their only shots on goal of the quarter — but Tripp stopped both tries.
Whenever Edward Little did have possessions throughout the game, which was sporadically, the Lewiston defense was quick and aggressive, and, on a number of occasions, able to force turnovers.
Eli Bigelow scored his fourth goal of the game late in the third with a turnaround shot after absorbing a check.
Caleb Davis finally got EL back on the scoreboard early in the fourth with a long snipe from the top of the zone to make it 8-2 Lewiston.
Poulin finished off his hat trick with just under eight minutes left, again utilizing a bounce shot to elude David.
Graves, on the giving end much of the game, scored a goal for himself with just over three minutes to play. Graves then rounded out the scoring with 23 seconds left on a shot that it initially appeared David was going to save. Caed Langley assisted.
David finished with 16 saves, while Tripp made 5.
“Donnie came up big, and he kept his focus through the whole game, and he threw some great outlet passes to get us going the other way real quick,” Fournier said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
