Favored, leading but laboring, the Lewiston High School Blue Devils needed Rivet’s tally at 7:50 of the second frame to establish some breathing room in their Eastern Class A quarterfinal matchup against Windham.

Playing stout defense and scoring when necessary, the Blue Devils used Rivet’s goal and three more to earn a 4-0 win over the visiting Eagles at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Tuesday, setting up a semifinal rendezvous with Bangor High School in the Eastern A semifinals on Saturday.

“I thought we pressed a little bit. I thought we tried to force some things in the offensive zone,” Lewiston coach Jamie Belleau said. “We were playing 95 percent of the game in the offensive zone, and that makes it hard. It’s not an excuse. We have to execute better, and I thought as the game went on, we made better choices.”

Convincing numbers — a 45-6 shot differential and a large advantage in time of possession — aside, the Blue Devils fought hard to find the back of the net against Windham keeper Clayton Owens. The senior — one of only three on the Eagles’ roster — was busy from puck drop to buzzer, and held his team reasonably close throughout the contest.

“Coming into the game we knew he was going to have to step up and have one of the best performances of his career,” Windham coach Greg LeClair said. “He did that. I can think of a few games where he made more saves, but not saves like he had to make (Tuesday). He gave us a chance.”

“What we did know about them was that their goaltender’s been pretty good,” Belleau said. “We were holding our sticks tight a bit, and in the first part of that game.”

But Owens alone couldn’t keep Lewiston at bay all night on his own. The Blue Devils took advantage of their depth and held the Eagles out of their own zone while maintaining pressure on offense.

Lewiston established its up-tempo pace early in the first frame, and punched in a quick goal when Jeromey Rancourt wound up for a slapshot from inside of 10 feet in the lower right circle. The puck got there after an awkward shot from Lewiston’s Brendon Croteau caught Owens off guard and the puck flopped off his chest and into the low slot.

The Eagles had a chance to equalize less than a minute later as Lewiston keeper Nick Hawk put himself out of position on a bounding puck, but the Devils’ defense cleared the front of the cage.

A Windham power play in the early going also went for naught. Despite heavy pressure from Lewiston, though, Windham escaped the first period with only a one-goal deficit.

“We clearly don’t have the depth that Lewiston has, so we had to try and clog the middle of the ice, deflect or block a lot of shots,” LeClair said. “And we did that. They must have had a hundred shot attempts and we stepped in front of a lot of them, gave up the body and really tied up the middle.”

The second period was nearly a carbon copy of the first. The Devils fired more shots — 16 — than in the first frame, but still needed help to earn the lone goal of the period. Just past the halfway mark, Rivet tried to center the puck after a long period of sustained pressure. It caromed off a Windham defender’s skate and past Owens to put the home team on top by a pair.

“I tried to throw it to the back door for one of my linemates,” Rivet said. “It happened to go in. I’m just glad it did.”

Kyle Ullrich and Dustin Larochelle added goals in the third to round out the scoring, earning the Devils a semifinal date with Bangor.

“We know what we’re facing Saturday,” Belleau said. “We know what Bangor brings to the table, we know them well, and they’re going to be hungry. But, what else do you expect at this time of the year? You have to play good hockey.”

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