AUBURN – The game was only a few minutes old, and Dave Morin already knew.

After watching his team play an inspired season-opener in a 1-0 loss to the defending state champions from Lawrence, the Edward Little boys’ soccer team couldn’t muster the same fire against the Brunswick Dragons Tuesday.

Brunswick seized control of the game early and dominated EL to the tune of a 3-0 victory.

“We couldn’t have played better against Lawrence and still lost,” said Morin. “It was an emotional game, and we played well enough to win. We surprised a lot of people. When we came out here today, you could just see we weren’t ready to play. I could just sense the apprehension and uncertainty. “

Brunswick’s skill proved too much for EL (0-2). The Dragons (2-0) possessed the ball early, and the Red Eddies could never disrupt Brunswick’s gameplan. EL was outshot 16-3, two of the shots came in the final moments of the game. EL was fortunate to escape the first half only down 1-0.

“You can’t keep knocking the ball in the middle of the field and expect something to come out of it,” said Brunswick coach Peter Gardner. “If you don’t stretch it and they press it and pack it in the middle, you can’t really try to go through too many bodies.”

The Dragons lone goal of the first half came with 21:57 left. Justin Gauvin dished to the left side, sending Mark Furrow in alone. He fired a shot to the right of the net for the 1-0 lead.

“That first goal we scored was on the backside and that’s because everybody was compressed in the middle,” said Gardner.

Brunswick outshot EL 6-0 in the first half. Furrow also had a shot that hit the crossbar.

In the second half, EL showed a little more spark but had to press a little more to find some offense. The Red Eddies did get their first shot until 5:34 into the second half. That came on a Shawn Campbell shot that rolled wide to the left.

“I thought we played a lot better in the second half,” said Morin. “They possess the ball so much, the guys get frustrated. When you get frustrated, you don’t stop playing physically, but you stop playing mentally. It’s like, ‘What do I do?’ and you stop to think about it. You just get flustered when the harder you work and nothing happens.”

With 20:07 left in the game, Elijah Ford got the first of his two goals in the game. Matt Veilleux crossed the ball to the front of the net where Ford redirected it. Then with 10:18 left, Jesse Kaplan sent Ford in alone.

“Their last two goals they got, we were trying to push up the field a little bit,” said Morin. “I think we could have gutted it out and lost 1-0, but we had to try and get something.”

One of the brightest spots for EL was the play of goaltender B.J. Levasseur. He had eight saves and made some key stops to keep EL within reach.

“I was happy with the way the goalkeeper played,” said Morin. “I was happy with the way we showed a little more intensity in the second half. “