LEWISTON — The boys’ soccer coach and team historian have been the same person at Lewiston High School for more than a quarter-century.

So when the Blue Devils erupted for seven goals at Don Roux Field Tuesday night in the second half of an 8-1 rout of Cony, nobody had to dust off a yearbook or go to the microfilm in order to find if it was an unprecedented feat.

“Nineteen seventy-six,” Mike McGraw said, spinning through the thousands of soccer and basketball games he’s overseen. “Winthrop. We scored seven in the first half, and the final score was 15-0. There was no league back then.”

Soccer has grown exponentially in both the number of schools playing the sport and competitive depth since that bicentennial year. Lewiston never again put up a seven-spot during its time in the Southern Maine Activities Association or in its current home, the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

Until this offensive flood, that is, in a game that was knotted 1-1 at the half.

“We wanted to come out strong in the second half. We were ready for them,” said senior midfielder Ali Hersi. “It was like when we scored, then everybody wanted to score.”

From the end of intermission to the merciful sound of the horn, Lewiston (6-2-2) made it look that easy.

Hersi, Subeer Osman and Dahir Abdi each scored two goals for the Blue Devils. Hersi added a pair of assists. Ahmed Mohamed and Kurtis Stocker got into the scoring act, as well.

The outburst was a far cry from the first meeting between the two teams — a 2-1 Lewiston victory in Augusta. It also bore little resemblance to a first half in which Hersi’s blast from 20 yards with 25:05 remaining represented the extent of Lewiston’s offense.

Dustin Dang picked up the equalizer for Cony (1-8-1) only 23 seconds later.

“They do come at you in waves,” said Cony coach Sean Davis. “When they did that at our place in the first half, we were able to withstand it and play them at least evenly in the second half. But they’re very good. When they play like that, they’re capable of beating anybody.”

Osman delivered the game-winner at 4:04 of the second half. Mohamed notched the first insurance goal less than a minute later.

Matt Beauparlant’s long throw-in set up Osman’s strike. J.J. Musse flagged down the ball near the far post and centered it to Osman, who perfectly placed an off-balance boot just underneath the crossbar at the right corner of the cage.

If Hersi’s subsequent through-ball to Mohamed didn’t unshackle the flood gates, Osman’s second goal of the half did. It triggered a cluster of four goals in under five minutes as Hersi, Stocker and Abdi each found the range.

“We were trying to get ahead of them and break them down and get a little momentum going,” Osman said.

“Our communication was good,” Mohamed added. “We were passing the ball, then one- or two-touching and finishing it.”

Dave Ouellette assisted two goals for the Blue Devils. Mohamed, Caleb Leino and Joe Sullivan joined Musse as table-setters.

Chris Jacques made six saves for Lewiston, ranked No. 3 in the current Eastern Class A Heal Points. The Devils bounced back from a tough loss to No. 2 Brunswick in preparation for their second showdown of the season Saturday against Edward Little.

“We got our butts handed to us Friday,” McGraw said. “I think we’ve been ready to break out of a funk, and unfortunately Cony was in the way.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

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