AUBURN – Lewiston versus Edward Little boys’ lacrosse officially joined football, basketball and every other sport as a legitimate rivalry Tuesday afternoon at Central Maine Community College.

EL prevailed for the first time ever in a series that’s had two installments per spring for much of this decade. The Red Eddies shut out the Blue Devils in the second half and rallied to a 6-5 victory, punctuated by a successful challenge of Devin McLellan’s illegal stick after his apparent game-tying goal with 1:04 remaining in regulation.

“We thought early on his stick was illegal. He was doing some pretty amazing things with it,” said Edward Little coach Andy MacIsaac. “I was waiting for the most strategic time to use it.”

MacIsaac sheepishly apologized to his classy counterpart, John Brubaker, as the two embraced at midfield after the game.

But Lewiston’s first-year boss, who had just handed EL senior Isaiah Rembert a symbolic game ball for his coach, was hearing none of it.

“That was a (crappy) call,” MacIsaac said.

“Not at all. It was good coaching,” Brubaker responded. “He should’ve had a legal stick.”

EL (4-8) earned the fifth and final playoff spot in Eastern Class A and will travel to – you guessed it – No. 4 Lewiston (6-6) for a quarterfinal game Thursday, June 11.

“It used to be when EL and Lewiston were playing lacrosse, you know what was going to happen. Now we’re in a new era of lacrosse in the Twin Cities, and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” MacIsaac said with a smile. We always play our best lacrosse against them, whatever our best lacrosse is. It’s hard to tell sometimes.”

When the referees put a ball in the pocket of McLellan’s crosse, held the stick at the prescribed angle and couldn’t dislodge the ball, it prolonged Lewiston’s game-ending scoreless streak to more than 27 minutes.

It also granted EL possession and put the Eddies in the man advantage for the duration due to a three-minute, non-releasable penalty against McLellan.

“(McLellan) was taking the ball and going through 10 people,” said junior Tom Lynch, who scored a first-half goal for the Eddies. “We’ve got to thank the coach for calling that. That was the thing that won us the game.”

Defensive heroes were many for EL.

The Eddies successfully employed their season-long strategy of splitting their goaltenders’ time. Senior Derek Vachon stopped eight shots to keep EL within two, 5-3, at halftime until Henry Moniz took over. Moniz made five of his nine saves in the fourth quarter.

Austin Polisky scored a pair of goals for the Eddies and made a timely steal in the fourth quarter. Shawn Brackett and Aaron Waite each disrupted potential game-tying bids.

EL avenged a 10-3 loss on May 9.

“The first time we came out on the (Bates College) turf and it was different,” Lynch said. “The ball rolled different. We had too many turnovers. Today we moved the ball. We had possession. We had a ton of takeaways.”

In danger of seeing a replay of the previous meeting after Lewiston ended the first half on a 3-0 surge, EL cut the deficit in half on Tim Brodsky’s second goal with 5:23 remaining in the third.

“Since the beginning of the season, that’s what we prepare for, our cross-town rival,” Brodsky said. “We’ve got to beat Lewiston, especially when it comes down to kind of a live-or-die, playoff situation. It’s great to be able to finally do it. We finally put together the game we know we can play.”

Polisky provided the equalizer with a nifty, underhanded sweep after cradling Zach Bennett’s pass from behind the net to start the fourth quarter.

Moniz made two huge, bang-bang stops against Sam Cloutier to preserve the tie before Polisky potted the go-ahead strike, Brodsky assisting, with 6:16 remaining.

“I’ve got a good group of (nine) seniors. It was senior recognition day, and I’m sure that gave them a little bit of extra something,” MacIsaac said. “They all knew they did not want to go out without EL beating Lewiston.”

McLellan, Erik Bonawitz, Curtis Robinson, Jake Poisson and Ryan Lemelin each scored for Lewiston. Jesse Leeman made 18 saves. Bennett added a goal for EL, with Rembert registering two assists.