AUBURN — The Edward Little boys’ soccer team found its scoring touch Tuesday afternoon against Lawrence.

Prior to the contest, the Red Eddies scored only three goals in six matches — two coming in a victory over Oxford Hills and the other goal in a draw with Messalonskee. Against the Bulldogs, they nearly doubled their scoring output in a 5-0 victory, improving to 2-3-1 on the season.

“We have really struggled to score this season,” Edward Little coach Matt Andreasen said. “We have only scored three goals all year and I thought today we looked the best we’ve looked, not only in the middle third of the field, but the attacking third.”

Another thing the Eddies did well that won’t show up in the box score was communicate.

“The communication was good,” Andreasen said. “I thought movement off the ball was very good. We still weren’t super efficient in front, but we created a lot of chances.”

The Bulldogs (0-7) couldn’t overcome EL’s offensive pressure from the start of the game.

“I thought the Edward Little kids did a good job pressuring the ball from the start,” Lawrence coach Bob Towne said. “They played and worked hard the whole game.”

The scoring opened up at the 13:17 mark of the opening half when Abdullah Jashaami set up Mohammed Abdraha, who fired it into the net. The goal came four minutes after Abdraha nearly opened up the scoring as his rising shot hit the crossbar.

Alex Thompson put the Red Eddies up 2-0 when the ball was chipped high out of the EL’s defensive zone. Thompson won the race to the ball against a Lawrence defender in the midfield. He put on the afterburners and went one-on-one with Lawrence keeper, Max Marin. Thompson easily put the goal home 27:40 into the opening half.

“We had some good breaks,” Andreasen said. “We switched some things up, we got some kids higher up on the field and we created a lot of chances in front of the goal. I think the final step is to finish some of those chances off.”

Nearly five minutes later, Jashaami found the back of the net. The goal was set up by Tyler Morin.

Andreasen calls Jashaami EL’s stretch guy, where they put him up against the last defender. Jashaami, who also runs indoor and outdoor track, used his speed throughout the game to create chances for the Red Eddies.

The second half started where first half left off, as Mohamed Jibril went down the field to make it 4-0 off the opening tap.

Jacob Kyajohnian capped the scoring when he blasted a shot from inside the box with 7:08 remaining.

The Red Eddies outshot the Bulldogs 36-4. Owen Mower only needed to make one save while Marin stopped nine shots.

“Overall we’re young and I think formation-wise we changed our lineup the past couple days,” Towne said. “We have people in positions that are new to them again. So they are leaning and I thought our second half was a little better. They will continue to get better.”

Edward Little had a few players go down in the second half due to injuries. Jashaami, Abdraha and Eli McBride all went down. Andreasen doesn’t believe the players will miss any time.

“It was a physical game,” Andreasen said. “Our focus is on getting those guys healthy for Friday. We have Camden Hills coming to town. They are an excellent team so we have to get those guys healthy and ready to go.”

Camden Hills will enter Friday’s contest unbeaten with a 6-0-1 record.

nfournier@sunjournal.com

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