The Edward Little basketball teams have had a slow start to the season.  While most teams have played as many as three games, the Red Eddies have hit the hardcourt just once — and that was nearly a week ago.

When the season opened December 10, EL didn’t have its first games until the following week. The boys’ beat Cony 59-47, while the girls’ won their opener in Augusta, 50-45.

Both were scheduled to play last Friday, but a bomb threat at Brunswick High School nixed those games. So with the season more than 10 days old, EL has just one game to its credit while all other teams in Eastern A have played as many as three games and at least two.

EL gets back into action tonight with a doubleheader with Lewiston. The girls’ are at 6 p.m. with the boys to follow around 8 p.m. They also play Oxford Hills Thursday. The girls’ are at home at 2 p.m. while the boys’ are on the road at the same time.

Looking for liftoff

The Mountain Valley Falcons are looking for a lift in the early stages of the season. The girls entered the season with excitement but have started the year 1-2, thanks to a schedule that matched them against two of the top teams in the MVC.

Mountain Valley returned most of  last year’s club that won 11 games before losing in the Western B quarterfinals.  All-conference forward Ayla Allen was among the returning starters along with McKenzie Paterson, Breana Roberts and Lindsay Gallant. Add in contributions from players like Chrissy Briggs and Kaitlin Armstrong, and the Falcons had reason to anticipate good things.

The Falcons beat Madison 50-35 on opening night but then droppped back-to-back games to Jay and Hall-Dale. The Falcons lost to the Tigers 49-42 and then had a comeback fall short against the Bulldogs, 44-38, after being behind 14-0 to start the game.

“The Jay game, I didn’t feel good about that game because we didn’t play to our ability at all,” Mountain Valley coach Rich Allen said. “Against Hall-Dale, I think they played pretty well. They played pretty hard. So we’ll see. “

The Falcons play Carrabec on Tuesday, Mt. Abram on Thursday and Georges Valley next week. All could be winable games for the Falcons, who get two tough tests to start the new year with Livermore and Dirigo.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get back on track,” Allen said.

Devils relay good news

The indoor track season’s first starting gun went off Saturday at the Bowdoin relays, and it was a great start for the Lewiston boys.

Lewiston finished second among 14 teams participating in the popular event at Bowdoin College. Hussein Ibrahim led the Devils with a winning time of 4:39.53 in the mile.

Ibrahim, Ali Hersi and Kevin Lavertu combined to win the 3×1 mile relay in 14:22.33. Ibrahim and Lavertu also teamed up with Michael Letendre and Kyle Palmer to finish second to Scarborough in the distance medley.

Lewiston coach Jamerson Crowley was particularly pleased with the performance of Hersi, who also took fourth in the mile.

“Obviously, he plays soccer, so for him to run that well this early in the season I think is a big indication of the kind of year he’s going to have,” Crowley said.

The event also includes throwing “relays” in which the top throws of  competitors from each school are combined for the aggregate distance. Lewiston’s throwing relay team of Leo Gaghan, Rudy Pandora, Michael Nazaroff and John Peters won the 4×100 throwing event. 

“Another person that had a real big day was Rudy Pandora,” Crowley said. “He threw 45 feet, which is a big PR for him in the shot. I think he’s going to have a real breakthrough season as well.”

Scarborough and Mt. Ararat tied to win the relays, while Poland, sparked by a third place in the team high jump and a third place from Cam Woodford in the shot put, finished seventh. Mt. Ararat won the girls’ event going away. Edward Little finished eighth, Poland 10th and Lewiston 11th, among 14 teams.

EL’s Jaclyn Masters won the pole vault, clearing the bar at 9-06.

Mixing and matching

With three games in the books and another big test looming Tuesday in Bangor, the Lewiston High School hockey team is slowly piecing together its lines. It’s a process, coach Jamie Belleau said, that could take most of the season.

“It’s still a work in progress,” Belleau said. “We’re still feeling our way around with certain combinations. The great thing about having an experienced team is that we can make some changes and we’re not really reinventing the wheel. They all understand what they’re supposed to be doing. It’s just a matter of seeing what works.”

Belleau started the season with three of the top forwards in the state on one line — Sam Cloutier, Ben Wigant and Colt Steele. His second line, by and large, has included brothers Ryan and Kyle Lemelin and Jon McDonough.

“That’s changed a lot, too,” Belleau said. “We’ve have (Eric) Morin come through both lines, we’ve had (Devon) Beland move through both lines, we’ve had Desmond Gagne move through both lines, and we’ve had a junior who’d never played varsity, Stefan Vallee, spot in on both of those lines.

“There are two schools of thought on finding combinations,” Belleau continued. “One school of thought is, find a combination and basically stick with it, and the other school of thought is that, if they play the way they’re supposed to play, it shouldn’t matter who they’re playing with.”

The Blue Devils face Bangor Tuesday, and will square off against unbeaten rival St. Dom’s on Thursday in the first of two scheduled meetings between the two schools this season.

“Against Thornton, we had four different goal scorers,” Belleau said. “If we can keep doing that, we’ll find more success.

Copy the Story Link