LEWISTON – Touché.

Exactly 22 days after Lewiston snuck out of Brunswick with a season-opening boys’ lacrosse win, the Dragons fired back Wednesday.

“We’ve had this day circled on the calendar since that first day,” Brunswick attack Tom Gibson said.

Gibson scored three goals in the first half and finished with four, and keeper Howard Theberge stopped 14 Lewiston shots to lift the Dragons to a crucial 8-4 win at Don Roux Field.

“Truthfully, they’re a quicker team than we are,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said. “If we went toe-to-toe, athlete to athlete with them, they probably could have beaten us, but we played well as a team.”

Brunswick’s victory gave the Blue Devils their first loss of the season, and, more importantly, pulled the Dragons into a tie atop the Eastern Class A standings with Lewiston.

“Here we go again,” Lewiston coach Tom Fournier said, smiling. “Another chapter in the history of these two teams.”

Lewiston began the final quarter trailing by just two, and pulled to within one at 5-4 with 7:53 to play in the game on a Zack Blauvelt goal, his third of the game.

But Brunswick responded with a goal at the 4:09 mark just as a man-up situation expired. The dagger, though, came 23 seconds later. A ball hit Blauvelt in the hands as it bounced into his body at midfield. Officials gave Brunswick possession, Kyle Sullivan picked up the loose ball, dodged his way into the low slot and fired the ball passed Lewiston keeper Kyle Dussault (6 saves).

“The kids were feeling good about the open field, and sometimes we give them that leeway,” Glover said. “Let the athletes be athletes, and they ran.”

Earlier in the game, the Blue Devils had the chances they wanted, but couldn’t finish.

“We got the balls to the back side, just the player and the goalie, but for a while I thought we were shooting at a shoe box,” Fournier said. “The cage looked small to me, too. Their goalie did a great job.”

Late in the second, Brunswick had just scored to go ahead for the first time, and Alex Stone had Theberge dead to rights on the left post. Theberge closed his legs and kicked the ball aside. The half ended with the Dragons in front, 3-2.

“It was basically a read and react,” Therberge said. “I try to look at the hands and figure out where he’s going to shoot.”

“We have a solid goaltender,” Glover said. “We know if we give them outside shots, he’s going to perform and shut them down.”

While the two teams have now met for the final time in the regular season, neither coach can shake the notion that they are destined to meet again this season in a much more important game.

“We’ll see each other again, I think,” Glover said. “The season’s not over yet.”