LEWISTON — Tight games are nothing new for Lewiston High School.

Even when the scoreboard read more like that from a hockey game after two quarters — in both goals for and against — the Blue Devils were confident.

“We love close games. We know our defense can keep us in it,” defender Eric Michaud said.

Lewiston found its offense in the third, scored four unanswered in the quarter, and coasted through the fourth to earn a second Eastern Class A championship with a 9-5 victory over Deering at Don Roux Field on Wednesday.

“This senior group is a talented group of athletes, and they’ve been very close, through football and hockey, and I think that helps,” Lewiston coach Bill Bodwell said. “They’re kind of battle-tested, and the fact that we were at home, playing a team that’s used to playing on artificial turf, that doesn’t hurt.”

Holding a 3-2 advantage at the half, Bodwell’s crew adjusted its offense to fit a tight-checking and mobile Deering defense, which held the Blue Devils down in the first.

“We knew they were going to be aggressive, and we knew we could adapt,” Bodwell said. “If a team wants to come out like they do, we’re ready for it.”

Curtis Robinson scored on a man-advantage 2:30 into the second half, Cloutier followed with his third of the game less than a minute later and Ryan Lemelin snaked his way to the front and scored on a pick by Brandon Tiner only 1:30 after that to push the Lewiston lead to 6-2.

“We were getting great looks and we had opportunities in that first half they just weren’t going in,” Bodwell said. “We knew they were going to continue to be aggressive and we were OK with that.

“We made a couple of adjustments (in the third quarter) and they worked well for us.”

Robinson added his second of the game with 5:01 to play in the third quarter to cap the flurry of offensive action and give the Devils their largest lead of the night.

“We tried to do what we did (in the Eastern A semifinal) against Portland, and that didn’t work,” Cloutier said. “Once we adjusted, we went to a new offensive set and that seemed to work pretty well.”

Coming out of the third intermission, the Rams, a second-half team all season, started to show some life. Goals from Cody Marcroft and Matt Flaherty cut the Lewiston lead to three.

“We were feeling pretty good there for a minute,” Deering coach Bob Rothbart said. “Then we got man-down, and they capitalized.”

On the ensuing faceoff, though, Chris Rancourt controlled the ball, sliced to the cage and scored 12 seconds later. Robinson added another, his third of the contest, to again push the Devils out in front by five.

Marcroft snuck another past Lewiston keeper Jesse Leeman in the game’s final minute, but that was the final blow from either side.

Lewiston’s defense, which along with Leeman allowed only 45 goals in 12 regular-season games, was again solid against a Deering team that averaged 12.9 goals per game during the regular season.

“We scouted them pretty hard and we knew all of them by their hands, whether they were righties or lefties,” Michaud said. “We did well to force them to their off hand, and when they wanted their strong hand, we cut off their angle.”

On the other end, the Rams’ defenders had been just as stingy as Lewiston’s.

“Our defense has been playing as good as any defense in the state,” Rothbart said. “They spread it out nicely, we pushed a little too hard on the ball, so they were able to beat us and our slide wasn’t quick enough. They got a few goals off of that.”

The teams played scoreless through six minutes before Cloutier opened the scoring with 5:42 remaining in the opening stanza. He added another at the 3:06 mark before Deering’s Carleton Allen snuck one through Leeman in the quarter’s waning seconds.

Elliot Chicoine pushed the Blue Devils back in front by two at the 8:04 mark of the second, only to watch as Allen netted his second of the game to again cut the Rams’ deficit to one.

Lewiston will face Scarborough in the Class A state final at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.