By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Within each of them is a pure lacrosse player, a banger and a speedster.

Individually, they would be solid players, tough to defend and a handful for opposing coaches.

They each have more of one quality than another, but together, they were nearly unstoppable this season, accounting for some 115 goals in 14 games.

Now, Jon Fournier, Zack Sheltra and Travis Lebrun are playing one last game together on the Lewiston boys’ lacrosse team’s front line.

“Not just as lacrosse players, we’ve all been friends for a while,” said Fournier. “When their guy slides to me, I can trust them when I get them the ball and let them do their thing. I know they can put it in the net, and they’ve been doing that. It’s all about trust.”

The trio of attackers’ trust has come not only from familiarity, but from an inherent unselfish nature.

“They all don’t mind making that extra pass,” said Lewiston coach Tom Fournier. “If they’ve got a shot, and the defender’s sliding, they’ll move it one more and sometimes they’ll move it right back to each other. It’s very common where they’ll do a tic-tac-toe, where it goes one, to the other and to the other.”

All three Blue Devils attacks were selected to the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference all-conference team, with Sheltra and Fournier grabbing first-team honors.

“They probably could have all been on the first team, honestly,” said Tom Fournier. “I would fight that Travis deserves to be there, too.”

It’s easy to see why Lebrun might be overlooked. He is smaller than almost every other player on the field. While he plays a solid, physical game when he has to, his strength is in his deceptive speed.

“Most defenders are bigger than I am,” said Lebrun, who stands shoulder-high to his teammates. “I try to stay away a bit. I use my speed instead of going inside because they can go right over my head and take my stick out, so if I use my speed and the other guys are moving off the ball, I can feed them from there.”

“You see defenders all year thinking O.K., this guy’s kind of little, I’ve got a pretty good assignment,’ and by the third quarter the guy’s tongue is hanging out,” said Tom Fournier. “They just can’t keep up with him.”

Plus, as Tom Fournier likes to point out, Lebrun is a lefty playing on the left side of the field.

“He’s got that stick right there, that last pass, all he has to do is shuffle it home, and he’s got a lot of those, a lot of lay-ups,” said Tom Fournier.

Sheltra, meanwhile, is a banger. He is unafraid to get dirty inside, but also has a solid shot from the perimeter.

“(Sheltra) is really good at protecting his stick inside, so he’ll roll off a couple of guys and he’ll still have that ball,” said Jon Fournier. “He’s good at that.”

“You just have to go in with some (nerve) and hope you get the ball to shoot and score,” said Sheltra. “You have to do what you can for your team. If that’s what it takes, that’s what you do.”

Jon Fournier, meanwhile, is like the front line quarterback. He can just as easily dodge his way into the middle or rifle one of the best shots in the state from 40 feet and score.

“They almost instinctively know where the other person is, what they’re going to do when they have the ball, what they’re going to do when they don’t have the ball,” said Tom Fournier. “It’s like a good unit, a quarterback and a couple of receivers.”

That cohesive unit has helped an injury-riddled back end all season, too, helping to ease the transition game, which is a big part of the Blue Devils’ effectiveness.

“We’re a transition team,” said Tom Fournier. “We like to pick the ball off the ground, take a couple of steps, look up, move it forward and get it to the open man. When we start that in the defensive zone, hit a middie, they can look up move the ball up to the attackmen and we get it done through there. It’s a lot easier if you can do it.”

The Blue Devils, from the three attacks down to goaltender Nate Rivet, will have their work cut out for them this afternoon at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Lewiston faces off against Scarborough for the Class A title at 5:30 p.m.

“(Scarborough) is solid in goal, have good outlet passes and their longsticks are good on-ball defenders,” said Tom Fournier. “They also can outlet the ball well, they have lots of fast middies who like to dodge. The attackmen are quick and can score, too.”

He paused, smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“Besides that, I guess we have nothing to worry about,” he laughed.