BATH – While most high school students were just crawling out of bed Saturday morning, the Lewiston High School boys’ lacrosse team was warming up on a field, staring down another team that stood in the way of its first win of the season.
Through the first half, the Blue Devils appeared to be the only players who paid attention to the alarm clock, as Lewiston ran over Morse with 11 goals in the first 24 minutes of play, cruising to a 14-6 win.
“It’s never good when you have to try and get a group of teenagers on a bus at 7:30 on a Saturday morning,” said Lewiston coach Tom Fournier. “But they did. They came out quick and established a rhythm early.”
Jon Fournier led the way on the score sheet for Lewiston (1-1) with seven goals and an assist, but he and his teammates were quick to point out that it took more than one player to create offense.
“We had good ball movement in the first half,” said Lewiston attack Zach Sheltra, who had six assists to go along with one goal.
“We we all moving without the ball,” added Jon Fournier. “For me, I had just one goal where I dodged through to the net. The rest were all on good feeds from the rest of these guys.”
The Shipbuilders, meanwhile, were flat-footed early, waiting back in their own end for plays to happen.
“They were able to control the ball, to get into their offensive set more quickly,” said Morse coach Ed Buzzell. “We never seem to play well in the early-morning games like that, but we seemed to wake up in the second half.”
Jon Fournier scored five of his seven goals in the opening half as the Blue Devils stormed out to an 11-1 lead. An often-overlooked defense allowed Morse just seven total shots, and freshman netminder Jon Collette saw just three shots on net, stopping two.
“For a kid that’s never been a goalie before, he’s doing terrific,” said Tom Fournier. “He’s a freshman, and he’d played lacrosse before, but he’d always been a long-stick. He made the conversion this year when he knew we needed a goalie. For a freshman to be put in that position and do as well as he has is fantastic.”
Freshman J.R. Roy (three assists), Bobby Labbe (three goals) and Travis LeBrun (one goal, two assists) also played well on offense, while Tim Roy and Ben Jumper helped to hold Morse in check on the defensive end.
“The biggest thing for us was to get the kids to communicate,” said Buzzell. “(Lewiston) does some of the same switches that we do, but we weren’t talking to each other to cover them.”
Buzzell’s son, Jordan, led the Shipbuilders with three goals, all coming in Morse’s five-goal second half. Lewiston relaxed their offense in the second half, and notched just three goals, while Collette was busier, stopping seven shots. Lewiston outshot Morse 39-24, but the shots were even in the final two quarters.
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