WALES — The trick for both the Oak Hill and Mountain Valley boys’ lacrosse teams is not to read too much into Friday’s Eastern Class B contest, a 12-0 Raiders rout.

Oak Hill backed up Thursday’s 14-1 thumping of Mt. Blue with another romp mercifully abbreviated by running time in the second half.

“It’s tough to take too much from it just because they’re lower teams, but at the same time, hey, a win’s a win,” Oak Hill coach Dan Brannigan said.

Sophomore Kyle Flaherty served up six goals and an assist for the Raiders. Senior Jon Averill added four goals while setting up a pair.

As for Mountain Valley, well, to say the Falcons were short-handed in their season opener would suggest that there were hands to spare.

After having their roster whittled from 22 players to the bare minimum of 10 due to ineligibility, suspension and vacation, the Falcons briefly lost goalkeeper Coyote Freeman to a two-minute, non-releasable penalty and a minor shoulder injury sustained on the same play.

That sequence happened with 8:31 remaining in the second quarter and Mountain Valley already trailing 6-0. There was a five-minute delay while defenseman Mason Milligan donned the pads and prepared to enter a game as goalie for the first time in his life.

“I told him just to get the hell out of the way,” Mountain Valley coach Rick White said.

Milligan played the remainder of the half and made four saves. Freeman re-entered the game at attack before returning to the cage after intermission.

By that time, the Raiders led 10-0 and owned a whopping 40-1 advantage in shots.

“I expected what we got,” White said. “The kids that never played before, they learned a lot today. They learned it’s a little bit different. They found out yesterday what position they were playing.”

Flaherty scored the final four goals for the Raiders, hastening running time when he found the net to complete the dozen with 8:34 left in the third.

“Last year as a freshman he didn’t want to do too much,” Brannigan said of Flaherty. “We kind of opened the reins on him and that’s allowed them to have more room, the seniors that are out there. Last year everyone just keyed on them, keyed on them, keyed on them, and we didn’t really have an answer for it.”

Oak Hill took a while to get untracked. Brian Daniels’ goal was the only scoring in the first seven minutes.

Defensive break-ups by Chris Bourret and Milo Jodrey and some solid saves by Freeman (13 on the day) frustrated the Raiders in the early stages.

“Whenever we can work as a team and have the mentality that we need to have, we can pull together and be a winning team,” Averill said. “At the beginning of this game we didn’t really have the mentality to win and work together. (Brannigan) talked to us and we straightened out and got a few goals right in a row.”

Averill tallied twice, sandwiched around Flaherty’s first goal, for a 4-0 lead after one period.

Mike Saunders scored a second-period goal from long range. Caleb Provost added three assists.

Matty Martin made five saves, all in the second half, to protect the shutout.

“Our defense has been absolutely top-notch. I can’t complain at all,” Brannigan said. “The only goal Mt. Blue got on us yesterday was a nice rip from a man down. Other than that they havem’t given up an even-strength goal yet.”

White expects to get three vacationing players back next week. His ineligibles are allowed to practice but not play.

“We’ll get better. I don’t think it was all terrible,” White said. “There were some glimpses defensively. I was just praying to get a shot on net. Ten against thirty-four is not good numbers.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

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