LEWISTON — Edward Little keeper Frankie Lally felt the soggy, sun-soaked turf give way beneath her feet. The only thought crossing her mind: “Oh no.”

Luckily for Lally, sweeper Deanna Morency slid back to the goal line, picked a Lewiston shot out of the air and cleared the scoring attempt with just 6:05 to play, preserving for Edward Little its second 1-0 victory over Lewiston of the season on a blustery fall afternoon at Don Roux Field on Saturday.

“I only really had one practice back in net,” Lally said. “On that play, I slipped, and thank goodness for Dee.”

Lally and Morency’s play in their respective positions Saturday was all the more remarkable considering neither player regularly mans those posts for the Eddies (5-4-2). Lally, regularly the sweeper, took Kirsten Prue’s position in the cage with the senior netminder out for a few games with a concussion, and Morency took Lally’s position.

“Frankie Lally and Dee Morency did a great job for us, to step in and play like that,” EL coach Val Ackley said. “And Phoebe Chamberlin did a great job on (Chelsea Delcourt), too. There were a lot of MVPs out there today.”

On the other end, captain Emily Grund found just enough of an opening in the eighth minute of the second half to provide all the offense the Eddies needed. Working against a pair of Lewiston defenders, Grund created some space, gathered the ball and fired a shot from 25 yards out past a diving Beth Lebel into the lower left corner of the cage.

“It was a clear shot for me,” Grund said. “I think I was aiming to the left, and I told the girls before the game started to aim low to keep the ball out of the wind, and I did that there.”

“She’s probably the most unselfish center-midfielder you’ll find,” Ackley said. “All year we’ve been trying to get her to get her shot off early, and she finally made a beautiful shot today and got her goal.”

“Our ‘D’ played a great game, they just got the one break with Emily,” Lewiston coach Steve Corson said. “One thing we’re worried about is her getting the ball anywhere on the field anyway. She’s got great soccer awareness.” 

Attacking with the wind in the first half, the Blue Devils (2-9-0) provided most of the early fireworks, earning chance after chance in front of Lally. They were unable to convert on five corner kicks, and they outshot Edward Little 9-5 in the half.

“We don’t get any points for pretty soccer I guess,” Corson said. “I was hoping we could put a couple in with the wind. Our kids played a great game.”

“The girls did a phenomenal job keeping the pressure off Frankie,” Ackley said. “The wind was unbelieveable today in what it did to the game. The Lewiston kids played hard, they were able to do some things off the flank, and (Delcourt) was tough in the middle.”

The roles reversed in the second half, with the teams switching sides. Still, Lewiston’s defense, led by stopper Emilie Cloutier, held the Eddies in check for much of the half, allowing just the one strike to Grund.

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