LEWISTON – Not many years ago, boys’ lacrosse enthusiasts at Lewiston High School were busy trying to persuade administrators to make their game an official spring sport and drum up enough interested players to field a team.

Now the Blue Devils can graduate nine starters and still win. Lose another fistful of experienced players to injury and eligibility, and win some more.

Short-handed Lewiston remains long on talent, as demonstrated Thursday evening by a 15-1 Eastern Class A rout of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School at Don Roux Field.

Defending Eastern A champion Lewiston (7-1) was ranked second in the first Heal Point tally of the spring.

“This is a whole new team,” said Lewiston coach Tom Fournier. “We graduated nine starters. They’re coming along. We make mistakes. It’s not like last year. We’re heading in the right direction, and that’s all I care about.”

Junior Ben Landry led the Blue Devils with five goals, including three in a seven-minute span of the second quarter.

Zack Blauvelt and Tim Gilbert each found the net three times, and Jon Roy scored twice. Blauvelt and Roy both notched four assists.

Landry, Blauvelt, Gilbert, Roy and Devin McClellan shared the wealth with a goal apiece in the first period, staking Lewiston to a 5-1 lead that grew to 10-1 at the half.

“We had a good, full team performance,” Landry said. “We were capitalizing on details like ground balls and face-off wins, and we kept the penalties down to a minimum.”

With only three seniors in the rotation and several players out of position and running longer shifts than usual, Lewiston employed a deliberate attack.

The Devils’ growing comfort level with one another was evident in that measured approach and their crisp, accurate passing game.

“I thought we should possess the ball as much as we could tonight,” Fournier said. “It was hot, and we were short-handed, so if we wanted to rest a little bit, we wanted to rest on offense and not on defense.”

Many of last year’s reserves and junior varsity players have thrived this season under unprecedented game pressure. With the program’s winning tradition, lacrosse has become a way of life even on non-game days.

“All the juniors and seniors are a tight pack. We play lacrosse all the time,” Landry said. “We’re always out here. No matter if it’s at a friend’s house or here, we’re just passing it around.”

Alex Stone also registered a goal and an assist for Lewiston. Alex Pare made five saves in goal for the Devils, who rolled up a 37-15 disparity in shots.

Oxford Hills (0-7) scored its goal on a nifty transition play in the first period, with Scott Fogg cashing in a steal and pinpoint pass by Tyler Wax.

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