LEWISTON – With a flick of his wrists, Mike Burke changed the complexion of the entire match.

With Burke serving at 2-3 in the second set, Biddeford’s Justin Tardif hit a shot past him at net. As Burke scrambled back toward the chain link fence surrounding the courts, he lunged at the ball and managed to loft it high in the air over his left shoulder just as he crashed shoulder-first into the fence. The ball fell on the line of the service box on Tardif’s side of the net, surprising him and just about everyone watching.

Tardif’s next attempt at the ball lacked power, and Burke recovered to win the point, the game, and eventually the set, giving Lewiston its second consecutive Class A state tennis title.

Burke won a pivotal point at No. 1 singles, besting Tardif 6-1, 6-4, and Adam Wilding and Nick Bonenfant also won at singles to help capture the crown.

“I don’t know how I got to that shot at all,” Burke said as he clutched the championship trophy with both hands. “I was just trying to get it back over somehow, and I knew if I could I would be able to get back in the point. The team’s goal from the beginning of the year was to come here and win, and we did that.”

According to Lewiston coach Ron Chicoine, Burke is a notoriously fast starter, and the fact that he won 6-1 in the first set with relative ease was no surprise.

“I knew if he could hang on mentally, he had the upper hand,” Chicoine said. “Last year, that shot he hit over his shoulder, and maybe even that set, he doesn’t win. That’s the biggest difference for him this year is his mental toughness.”

After converting the over-the-shoulder shot, Burke tied the second set at three, and then broke Tardif for the first time in the set to go up 4-3. Tardif, however, wasn’t done, and broke Burke back to again tie the match.

“If there was anyone I’d pick to be in that situation this year, it would be Justin,” Biddeford coach Mark Ouellette said. “He hadn’t lost in a team match all year (his only loss was to No. 7 Gabe Bedoya of Dirigo in the state singles tournament), and he is a tough player that gets better as the games go along.”

Burke again took advantage of a weakness he found in Tardif’s game and again broke the Biddeford senior to go up 5-4.

“I saw that he was a little weaker on his forehand,” Burke said. “He was trying to hit it to my backhand a lot to force me to put it cross-court, so I kept hitting it deep to his forehand.”

One game later, Burke held serve, sending the large crowd gathered around Court 4 at the Franklin tennis complex into cheers. Stoic, Burke accepted congratulations from his opponent, and then turned to his mother and the rest of the crowd.

Wilding and Bonenfant, meanwhile, won easily in their matches, taking less than an hour to upend their opponents by identical 6-2, 6-2 scores, despite what both players called “less than perfect” performances.

“We wouldn’t be here without those two,” Chicoine said. “Neither of them have lost a match all year. They have been very solid for us. When you are a couple of notches below an opponent, it is easy to get caught up in their game and try to end points too early. They did well to stay out of trouble today.”

At No. 1 doubles, Lewiston and Biddeford both had teams that had not lost a match all season. The Tigers’ tandem of Barrett Belanger and Jeff Saucier are the reigning SMAA doubles champs, while James Morin and Mike Sarrazin won the KVAC title this season. On Saturday, it was the Biddeford pair that gained the upper hand thanks to a slower pace that confused the young Lewiston players.

Biddeford’s No. 2 team of Eric Desroberts and Josh Masse, meanwhile, also won in their match against Ben Bergeron and Luke Bonenfant of Lewiston to square the match at two, sending the decision down to Burke and Tardif at No. 1.

“I told him that if he wanted to win a state championship, it was up to him,” Chicoine said. “I put that pressure on him early, right from the start of the match because I knew it would come down to him. He responded to the pressure well.”

In two years, Lewiston has lost just one team match, an early-season loss to Deering in 2003. It is the second title in as many years for Chicoine, who took the job over from his father, Rene, in 2003. In all Lewiston has now won nine boys’ state tennis titles since 1980, while the Lewiston girls have won seven.

Mt. Ararat, which defeated Lewiston 3-2 on Wednesday in the Eastern Maine final, completed its own undefeated season on Saturday by upending Deering 4-1 to win the girls’ Class A title.

Marcia Gilbride, Jenn Charette and Katie Marstaller all won their singles matches, and Miranda and Christie Rogers won at first doubles to clinch the win for the Eagles.

Jane Heves and Christin Scott scored the Rams’ only point of the match with a win over Chelsea Annese and Ellen Condon at No. 2 doubles.

In Class C, the Cape Elizabeth boys, behind top singles players Sam Maury and Garrett Currier, bested Camden Halls 3-2, while NYA crushed Sumner 5-0 for the Class C girls’ title.

In Class B, the Yarmouth girls and the George Stevens Academy boys took home their respective titles. The Clippers defeated Caribou 4-1, while GSA came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Waynflete 3-2.

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