Playing against Lewiston High School is a lot like playing with fire. 

As the Blue Devils’ first five opponents have seen, if you try and focus on stopping one skater, you’re going to get burned by someone else. 

Through five games, 15 of Lewiston’s 18-player roster have contributed to an offense averaging 7.2 goals per game. Twelve Blue Devils have recorded a goal, seven of which have scored two or more. Even senior goaltender Paige Fontaine has factored into the scoring, registering an assist against Biddeford on Dec. 1.

Leading the charge is one of Lewiston’s youngest players and one who isn’t even listed as a forward. Freshman defender Lauren DeBlois has amassed 14 points on 10 goals and four assists and is coming off a four-goal performance against Greely on Friday. 

“It’s a team effort,” DeBlois said. “We’re all there for each other all the time. One pass can equal a goal. It’s a team effort all around. We’re close like family. That’s how we get the wins.” 

Now that DeBlois is no longer Lewiston’s best kept secret, coach Ron Dumont believes teams will try and focus their game plans on stopping her, which the Blue Devils have plenty of depth to combat that. 

“It’s a tremendous luxury,” Dumont said. “Lauren is a special case in which she’s a defenseman and she has a wonderful shot. But along with that, what’s going to happen is if teams start keying in on her I have a whole boatload of other kids. Corinne (Laberge) can fire the puck, Erica (Lemieux) has just been a mainstay for us the past couple of years. You can always count on her to get her goals. We’ve got Allison (Frechette), who moves the puck very well. That’s just to name a few and not to exclude anyone, but we have a whole bunch of girls. It can come from all different places and it has, which is really good. If teams start keying on one person, we have an alternate plan and the personnel to pull it off.” 

Frechette, a sophomore, and Lemieux, a senior captain, each have five goals this season. Frechette has added four assists while Lemieux has chipped in with two. Lemieux recorded a goal in each of her first three games this season, including a hat trick in the season opener against Mt. Ararat. Frechette has a point in her last four games with back-to-back two-goal games against Brunswick and Biddeford. 

Laberge, a junior assistant captain, has lit the lamp twice this year, but has been the team’s leading facilitator with six assists. Laberge leads an unselfish Blue Devils squad that has 30 assists on 35 goals. 

“We’ve been doing a good job, especially in past games where it’s less competitive, we’ve been putting out our third and fourth lines and trying to get everyone involved instead of getting a lot of goals in the first period by one person and then stopping,” Laberge said. “We try to spread out the goals.” 

For Dumont, it’s not about padding stats. With their first four games coming against teams with a combined 2-14 record, goals were there for the taking, but instead that time was used to get the younger, less experienced skaters some quality ice time. 

“I pull the reins,” Dumont said. “I told the team ‘You’re not going to destroy teams that cannot defend themselves.’ I think that’s ridiculous for starters to be putting pucks in the net in the third period when you’re winning by seven or eight goals. You just don’t do it against teams that can’t defend themselves. They’re great kids and they went along with that.” 

Not counting DeBlois and Frechette, freshmen and sophomores have accounted for 14 points.  

The Blue Devils faced their toughest task of the season to date in a 6-3 victory over Greely on Friday and the schedule doesn’t get any lighter as the year continues. Lewiston still has two encounters with rival Leavitt/Edward Little/Poland — the only other unbeaten team in the state — Falmouth, defending state champion Scarborough and a second meeting with Greely. It’ll take a collective effort for the Blue Devils to get through that stretch unscathed. 

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