Monday, each squad closed the door on the past and battled tooth and nail with one another. There were no lopsided, demoralizing losses on this day.

Sophomore Kasey Talarico netted the only goal of the contest with 16:48 to play in the first half and both defenses stood tall thereafter as the Blue Devils snuck away with a 1-0 win over the Dragons.

“Finally. It was the best feeling in the whole world,” Talarico said. “I wanted to cry when I knew we won. I was so happy, and I know all the girls are too. We’re a very young team. Being as young as we are, we’re getting there, we know we’re going to get there soon.”

Lewiston lost its first two games of the season by a combined score of 13-2. But knowing how young the team is, coach Randy Richardson wasn’t so worried.

“From 0-7 to 2-6, we improved,” Richardson said, “and in that Lawrence game (the second game), we were pressuring them in the second half, at the end of the game. This game, while we’d hoped to score more goals, we achieved a shutout. Brunswick has come a long way. They are a very competitive, up-and-coming team. We’re going to continue, one game at a time, and we’re going to continue to improve, little by little by little.”

Brunswick regrouped over the weekend after losing its first two by a combined score of 15-0.

“Friday, at practice, after the beginning of the season we had, I said, ‘Clean slate, I want to hear five things you wouldn’t change about this team, five things you would, and five accomplishments you want to attain by the end of the season,'” Brunswick coach Karin Paquin said. “One of their accomplishments was being able to transition and use triangles, and they mastered that today.”

The Dragons’ ability to march the ball down field was apparent on the stat sheet. They earned 10 penalty corners to the Devils’ four, and forced Lewiston keeper Kaylynn Labonte to make seven saves, including a handful in tight in the closing minutes.

“Last year we went so many games with zero shots on goal,” Paquin said. “This year, we set a goal to have at least 20 shots per game. They’ve stepped up and gone for that.”

It was Lewiston, thanks to Talarico’s persistence, that earned the game’s lone goal, though. After a rush, the ball found its way to Talarico at the top of the circle.

“The goalie had moved out of the way,” Talarico said. “Somebody had tried to shoot, and it went away from the goalie. I just walked it in because nobody was there.”

She banked the shot off the post and into the cage.

“I always tell my goalies, there are the goals you should absolutely not let in, and then there are those that are just going to be those awesome shots,” Paquin said. “Sometimes, you get those shots, there’s nothing you can do about them.”

The Blue Devils are hoping to build on Monday’s win going forward

“It’s hard to believe in yourself when you’re young and untested,” Richardson said. “To build confidence, sometimes preseason isn’t enough. In our first game, it was such a bad loss, it shook us a bit. So we’ve focused on trying to improve, and each day being better than the previous day.”

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