LEWISTON – After an antsy first half in which their offense displayed little patience, the Brunswick Dragons found their groove at the start of the second.
The Dragons overcame a 6-4 halftime deficit and outlasted the Lewiston Blue Devils 13-12 in an overtime girls’ lacrosse match Tuesday.
Becky Halmo converted a feed from Tiffani Romano with just 2:27 remaining in the six-minute overtime period for the winning goal.
“We wanted keep it settled,” said Halmo of her team’s patience in setting up the game winner. “It was a great pass.”
The Dragons (1-0) didn’t show that same patience in the first half. Only one of their four scores came during a set offensive. The other three came in transition with the goal scorer streaking down the middle of the field.
“Starting off was a little difficult,” said Halmo. “A lot of us were nervous. We had a good talk at halftime and cooled it down. (Then) we got into a groove going into the second half.”
“We were more aggressive on the ground balls in the second half,” said Brunswick coach Beth Caputi. “We were getting to more of them.”
Attacker Megan Clement ignited the second half surge with a pair of goals within the first 2-minutes and 13-seconds after the break. On the first score she collected a pass in front from Jessie Hyde and fired a shot past Lewiston goalie Mary Leblanc (14 saves).
Moments later, she scooped up a loose ball and advanced toward the Lewiston cage before finding the back of the net. She would finish with six goals and an assist on the afternoon.
“She definitely is the kind of kid that has an eye for the goal,” said Caputi.
Clement tied the game at 11-11 with 4:31 left in regulation and gave the Dragons a brief lead with an unassisted tally 33 seconds later.
The Blue Devils (0-1) came charging back when Marina MacDonald picked up the ball after an errant shot on the Brunswick goal. She then wheeled in front and put a low, hard shot past Brunswick goalie Casey Gosselin (12 saves) with 3:19 remaining.
Lewiston had a great opportunity to win the game in regulation after Brunswick was whistled for a violation in front of their goal. Luca Jacobsen’s free position shot however, was stopped by Gosselin from point blank range and sent the match into overtime.
The overtime session was controlled early on by the Blue Devils only to see Gosselin stop a shot by Mallory Long (five goals) and Kelsey Varney (four goals) bang one off the post.
“It was there for us,” said Lewiston coach Don Jalbert. “We just needed one more.”
Leblanc came up with key saves throughout the second half with Brunswick increasing the pressure.”She held us in the game,” said Jalbert. “She’s got me optimistic on how far we can go.”
Comments are no longer available on this story