The Lewiston boys’ lacrosse team will take it.

The Blue Devils weathered an early onslaught from St. Dominic Academy, slowly picked their way back to even, and then dominated on defense in the second half to lock down a 7-4 win over the rival Saints in the teams’ final game of the regular season. The Devils counted goals from five different players Tuesday, including two from sophomore Nick Tilley.

“He’s been working, he’s been on JV for a little while,” Lewiston coach Ben Fournier said. “He’s been working his butt off before, during and after practice, and it’s starting to show on the field. He’s worked hard, he earned his shot and he made it count (Tuesday).”

Tilley was just the latest in a string of several Lewiston players to emerge this season, giving the Devils (10-2) myriad offensive weapons.

“That’s a strength of ours,” Fournier said. “Alex Rivet, they knew going in that he was one of our better goal scorers, and they put their best pole on him, so that closed him off for most of the game, but it opened up alleys for a bunch of other guys who finished plays just as well.”

Rivet netted a goal in the first half and Jayden Wilson added two in the second as Lewiston pulled away after a 3-3 halftime deadlock.

“It was just a matter of the tide shifting,” St. Dom’s coach Jamie King said. “Possession is key, and they had the ball more. we didn’t have a chance to get the ball back down there. And when we did, we made some forced passes and turned it over.”

King is in a unique position. In addition to being the head coach of the Saints’ lacrosse team, he is also an assistant coach with the Lewiston boys’ hockey team. The Blue Devils and Saints have one of the fiercest and longest-standing hockey rivalries in New England.

“Whenever it’s a Lewiston-St. Dom’s anything, it’s always going to be a battle,” King said. “They’re always going to leave it all on the field. We knew they were going to come after us, and we had to try to keep our composure and play our game.”

The Saints nearly buried the Devils from the opening draw. Austin Roy scored 1:08 into the game. JD Hodson added another 39 seconds later, and after a Lewiston reply, Kenton Ernst made it 3-1 for the home team 3:58 into the contest.

“We worked hard all week preparing for Lewiston, and we knew what they were going to bring,” King said, “but that was one of the best starts we’ve had all season, with three goals in (four) minutes.”

“I think came out a little flat, and St. Dom’s came out absolutely firing, they were ready to play today,” Fournier said. “It took us a quarter or two to kind of get our bearings and get going. Thank God we didn’t wait too long.”

Griffin Wade pulled Lewiston within one with 3.4 seconds remaining in the first quarter, and Pat Racine netted the equalizer with 3:56 to play in the first half from five yards.

Despite dominating time of possession in the third quarter, Lewiston managed only one goal in the frame — a Wilson strike on a slick spin move off the right post — thanks to Saints keeper Alex Michaud.

“The second quarter we hit a lot of posts, but in the second half, their goalie was making some really good saves, and he stepped his game up big time,” Fournier said.

Michaud finished with 19 saves and kept the Saints close. But Tilley struck twice in the fourth and Wilson mopped things up with his second of the game with 2:42 to play to put the game out of reach.

Roy’s second of the game for St. Dom’s with 1:20 to play capped the scoring.

With the win, Lewiston (10-2) locked up the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Class A playoff bracket. The Saints (5-7) will also play at least one playoff game. As the No. 9 seed in East B, they will travel to No. 8 Morse for a preliminary round contest.

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