Boys’ lacrosse: Undefeated Brunswick burns Lewiston

Roman Dennis, top, of Lewiston and Christian Jenson of Brunswick tangle during a first quarter faceoff in Lewiston on Friday.

LEWISTON — Brunswick was in the zone Friday night, figuratively and literally. And that spelled doom for Lewiston, which fell behind and didn’t recover.

The Dragons jumped out to a 5-0 lead, then held the Blue Devils to just five goals total in a 16-5 Class A North boys’ lacrosse victory at Don Roux Field.

“Brunswick just came out firing,” Lewiston coach Ben Fournier said. “It took us a little while to settle into our stuff. Once we did, we had some good possessions and some good looks, but when you go down a whole 5-0 to a team like Brunswick, it’s real hard to climb out of that.”

Ben Palizay opened the scoring for the Dragons (7-0), finding the back of the net less than four minutes in. He scored twice during a 4-0 first quarter for Brunswick, then opened the scoring in the second quarter for a quick hat trick.

“We scripted and knew that we needed to get a lot of productivity out of our midfielders,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said. “Our D-middies were a key element to the game, too.

“We knew this would be a ground ball battle. It always is. So the possession aspect of it, and the ground ball piece of it, those defensive middies were able to get out there and get the work done to get the fresh legs on, like a Ben, to downhill dodge.”

The Blue Devils (3-3) finally got on the scoreboard after spotting Brunswick a 5-0 advantage. Pat Racine fed Garrett Poussard 3:34 into the second, then Alex Rivet cut it to 5-2 less than three minutes later.

Lewiston looked like it had turned the tide in its favor, but Brunswick’s zone defense kept the Blue Devils from getting any closer than three goals.

“That was the first time Brunswick threw a zone at us,” Fournier said. “I think we did an OK job of adapting to it, but it definitely kind of took the air of our offense a little bit and threw a monkey wrench in there.

“They were giving up outside shots — and few outside shots, at that — nothing inside. We’ve kind of made a living finishing inside, and they definitely took that away with the zone tonight.”

Glover said he had his team play a zone to settle the pace down at the start of the game after his team went to overtime against Kennebunk the night before. He said he was surprised at how well the zone worked.

“Lewiston is an exceptional program, exceptional team of athletes,” Glover said, “so we were very happy to kind of take a little wind out of it, settle down, and then play our transition game.”

The Dragons answered Lewiston’s modest two-goal run by scoring four of the last five goals in the first half to take a 9-4 lead. Max Gramins and Josh Dorr each had a goal and an assist in the second quarter, while Jayden Wilson notched a goal for Lewiston.

Gunnar Wade put the Blue Devils on the board first in the second half, but Brunswick scored the final three goals of the third quarter, including two by Gramins to complete a hat trick.

Gramins’ third goal came with 10 seconds left in the third, then he scored his fourth just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter. Palizay later added his fourth goal.

Christian and Aiden Glover each scored a pair of goals for the Dragons, as well.

“Their guys, they’re very skilled players, and they run the system that they’re told to very well,” Fournier said. “They execute, and they get their shots, and they don’t waste them, they bury them.”

Wade finished the scoring for Lewiston, with Wilson assisting on the goal.

Connor Pendergast stopped eight of 13 shots in goal for Brunswick, while Bryan Wagg made six saves for Lewiston.

“We’re taking it as a learning experience, and we’re not going to dwell on it too much,” Fournier said. “We’re going to take what we can from it and we’re going to forget about it.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com