BRUNSWICK — The Lewiston High School Blue Devils girls' lacrosse team started strong, but Brunswick pulled away in the second half for a 16-5 victory in a KVAC match-up of unbeatens.
Natalie Rousseau attempts a shot on goal past Brunswick's goalie Molly Herman in the first half of their game Thursday in Brunswick. The shot was intercepted and the Dragons went onto dominate the Blue Devils 16-5. To see more photos form the game, visit sunjournal.com/lewistongirlslax050312.
Lewiston's Kayla Hamel and Brunswick's Dakota Foster both leap in the air in an attempt to control the ball after a face off in the first half of their game Thursday in Brunswick. Foster got to the ball first, but she flung it into the basket of a Lewiston girl.
Lauren Lessard scoops the ball up ahead of Brunswick's Olivia LeRoy during the first half of their game in Brunswick Thursday. The Dragons ended up topping the Blue Devils 16-5.
Lewiston's Sadie Poulin gets her stick in front of Brunswick's Lillian Kjellman in order to break up pass Thursday in Brunswick.
Emily Paione nabs the ball after a face off as she is backed up by teammate Rachel Mills in the first half of their game against Brunswick Thursday.
Brunswick's Liz Faulkner pushes into Lewiston's Kelsey Dumond to keep her from advancing on the net in the first half of their game Thursday.
Despite the lopsided score, Brunswick coach Beth Caputi was impressed with the Lewiston club.
"They were much faster and more athletic then I anticipated," said Caputi. "To me, this is the most athletic Lewiston team we have played in a long time. I never thought the second half would go like that."
The Blue Devils (3-1) didn't wait long to announce their arrival. Mariah Carrier fired a shot past Molly Herman 23 seconds into the contest with Lauren Lessard setting the goal up, putting the visitors on the board first. Nearly a minute later, Natalie Rousseau found the back of the net to give Lewiston an early 2-0 advantage. Kelsey Dumond notched the Blue Devils third goal six minutes in.
The Dragons (4-0) regrouped and answered quickly, as Anne Kelly notched her first of four goals on the contest at the 6:20 mark of the first half. Just past the 11-minute mark Dakota Foster cut the Devils' lead to 3-2. Butch Dow, Lewiston's acting head coach, called a timeout.
"What I wanted to do when it was 3-2, I wanted the girls to keep their composure and not get (over-confident) to continue to play like we were," Dow said.
The timeout seemed to do the trick as Kayla Hamel beat Herman at the 12:12 mark with Lessard picking up her second assist.
Foster, a thorn in Lewiston's side all afternoon, answered for the Dragons third goal.
"I do think we have that experience on our side, we have that competitive thing going on," Caputi said. "It was going to be impossible for (Lewiston) to solve the draw. Because Dakota (Foster) had the height and she really does have a good stick."
Lessard restored the two goal lead, making it 5-3 just before the 16-minute mark with Hamel returning the favor with an assist of her own.
Suzannah Smith started the Dragons on the comeback trail, notching a score at the 19:19 mark of the opening half. Anne Kelly would start to heat up with two goals late in the first half to give Brunswick the 6-5 advantage of heading at halftime.
"We started to get shaken up because we shook them up in the first half," Dow said. "(Brunswick) got their composure back and shook us up and we had a hard time getting our rhythm back to keep the play going. They have had more experience and this is the first time we were able to play on a even keel with them in the first half."
Brunswick continued to step on the gas pedal in the second half, scoring ten unanswered goals.
Kelly added one more goal in the second half, at the 27 second mark. Smith added five more goals in the second half and Foster tallied four more.
Dow said they are modeling their style of play after Brunswick.
"We started to make changes to our program two years ago, making it more of a passing team,” Dow said. "I took a page out of (Beth Caputi's) book, actually, by watching her and said, 'What's working for them, why aren't we doing it?' I think we are going in the right direction."
Sam Cote made 15 saves in net for Lewiston while Herman was able to stop seven Lewiston shots for the Dragons.
"Molly got in a grove and made a nice couple of stops in the second half," Caputi said.
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