LEWISTON — The early lead looked promising.

But Lewiston’s quick advantage felt like one of those relatively warm and sunny days in the middle of January. You just knew it wasn’t going to last.

Sure enough, Messalonskee slowly erased the early deficit and gave the Blue Devils a battle down the stretch. Lewiston recovered and held off the Eagles’ rally for a key 9-7 win at Bates College on Thursday.

“Messalonskee is a good team,” Lewiston coach Ben Fournier said. “They’re always very athletic. You know late in the game they’re going to up it. They’re going to bring it even more. That’s what we talked about at halftime. They got ready and were ready for it.”

Lewiston had a 4-0 lead early, but Messalonskee was within 4-2 at the half. The Eagles tied the game late in third. After Lewiston took the lead back, Messalonskee tied it again early in the final quarter. Lewiston got goals from Roman Denis, Brendon Croteau and Alex Rivet and a stellar defensive effort to hold off the Eagles.

“It scared us a little bit, ” said Denis, a sophomore, who had both tie-breaking goals in the second half. “I thought we had them in the first quarter, but I knew it wasn’t over yet. We really just had to stick together and be a team.”

Messalonskee is a veteran club that reached the Eastern A semifinals last year. Lewiston is young in comparison, and lost in the quarters last spring.

“We just tried to play our game and did what we needed to do and not worry about the other team,” Fournier said. “We just tried to execute our system.”

Denis, Rivet and Pat Racine each had two goals each for Lewiston (2-0). Griffin Wade had a goal and an assist while Gunnar Wade and Croteau also scored.

Goalie Bryan Wagg made eight saves and the defense in front of him did a superb job holding off a veteran Messalonskee attack. Lewiston managed to break up numerous plays and were aggressive in knocking down passes and shots.

“We have a lot of seniors on defense,” Fournier said. “A lot of our leaders are back there. At this point in their careers, they’ve been in these situations before. They know how to take charge and know what needs to be done.”

Connor Smith led Messalonskee’s comeback with four goals. Austin Pelletier had a pair and an assist.

A Griffin Wade goal early in the second half built the lead to 5-2, but Smith scored three straight goals to tie the game. The equalizer came after Lewiston failed to take advantage of two Eagles penalties. There was one second remaining on the advantage when Smith tied it with 3:09 left in the third.

Lewiston managed to take the lead back with 40 seconds left in the quarter. Denis scored to give the Blue Devils the momentum entering the fourth.

“That definitely brought the team up a lot more,” Denis said. “I don’t think I’ve seen my team that fired up. We were all really excited.”

Smith tied the game against just 40 seconds into the fourth quarter. Lewiston retook the lead 1:28 later. Denis scored his second of the game with 9:52 left. His shot hit the stick of goalie Elijah Tuel, but the ball deflected up and off his head and body and into the goal.

Lewiston made it 8-6 with 6:20 left when Croteau put another shot in off the goalie. Messalonskee (1-1) got one goal back on a Pelletier tally with 5:42 left, but Lewiston controlled play down the stretch. Penalties didn’t help the Eagles’ cause or hopes for possession. Rivet provided breathing room with a goal with 2:32 left.

Down the stretch, Lewiston was solid defensively and didn’t allow Messalonskee to get its attack going. When needed, Wagg made some key saves.

“We were really nervous because the score was really close,” Denis said. “It’s hard to describe the feeling. It was a great feeling because we haven’t beaten Messalonskee before. So it was definitely a good experience.”

Lewiston opened the early lead with goals from Rivet and Gunnar Wade in the first quarter. Racine and Rivet scored in the second to boost the lead to 4-0. Messalonskee cut the deficit with goals by Dylan Burton and Pelletier late in the second quarter.

“That was one of our goals, to play from the first whistle and through the last whistle,” Fournier said. “The guys played a complete game. It was good. We executed what we needed to.”

kmills@sunjournal.com