The offense may have looked like a unit that was playing its second game in as many days, but the defense was its usual stingy self.

After conceding a single goal against Edward Little on Friday, the Blue Devils held visiting Biddeford to two tallies in a 3-2 victory over the Tigers on Saturday. Lewiston has allowed two or fewer goals in three of its last four contests. 

“When I started at the program last year, we knew we were always going to play good defense,” Lewiston coach Skip Capone said. “That’s where it all starts. I don’t care what sport it is, you play good defense, you’re going to be in every game. It starts with our goalie, but I think our kids have bought into that, of playing really hard and not giving up.” 

With Lewiston’s offense struggling throughout the game, being held to its lowest goal total of the season, its defense kept the Blue Devils (5-1) afloat. But when the Blue Devils desperately needed a goal in the final minutes of regulation, deadlocked in a 2-2 game, they found it. 

Kristina Blais provided the game-winning goal with 4:51 left. Since Lewiston was struggling to connect on passes, Blais opted to take the ball the length of the field herself, outrunning Biddeford defenders en route to firing a shot past goalie Emily Boisvert. Blais’ goal ended a scoring drought of more than 32 minutes. 

“We just ran the transition right and I knew that we needed a goal so I just kind of went for it,” Blais said. “Our defense is great. They worked their tails off. We weren’t really getting it done on the offensive end, but we finally ran transition right and we got it.” 

The Blue Devils killed off a late penalty and forced a turnover in the final 30 seconds to preserve the victory. 

It didn’t appear there was going to be an lag affect from Friday night’s victory over Edward Little in the early going. Lauren Lecompte scored off a feed from Allison Frechette 2:47 into the game to put the Blue Devils in front 1-0. Blais tallied her first goal eight minutes later.

Both offenses went quiet the rest of the first half. Lewiston and Biddeford combined for five shots on goal in the opening 25 minutes. 

“We struggled just getting the ball over midfield,” Capone said. “We made some ill-advised passes and that starts with me. We did it so well at times and at other times we just didn’t. Even when we got down at our end we just made some bad mistakes. Our defense, when we’re playing our zone, it forces teams to be very patient. They were just cycling so we played a lot of defense today.” 

Biddeford had just two shots on goal in the first half, the first coming past the halfway mark. 

“They were forcing us left the whole time,” Biddeford coach Caitlin Albert said. “We are a sixth-year varsity team, so we are getting there, but we’re not 50 percent right hand, 50 percent left hand, so they were doing a good job stopping us there. It’s just feeling comfortable with it.” 

The Tigers (3-2) found their offensive step in the second half. Rebekah Guay solved Lewiston goaltender Paige Fontaine at 4:54 of the second half moments after Fontaine made a stop on Camryn McKeown on a free possession play.

“We started changing more off-ball movement and more double cuts, triple cuts, that kind of thing because they were playing a pretty tight zone,” Albert said. “We were finding it hard to go through and what we originally play wasn’t really working.” 

Fontaine finished with six saves — four in the second half. With the Blue Devils holding on to a one-goal lead, Fontaine made point-blank saves on Peyton McKeown and Melissa Huot to keep Lewiston in front. 

Camyrn McKeown didn’t get denied again, cutting to the net and slipping a shot past Fontaine with 8:52 remaining.

Moments earlier, Lewiston thought it had grabbed a 3-1 lead when Haley Lebel bounced a shot past Boisvert. But officials called a shooting space violation on Biddeford prior to the shot. Boisvert made the save on Lebel’s ensuing free possession attempt.

Boisvert finished with three saves.

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