The Red Eddies showed that extra something that occurs when playing their biggest rival, but the Blue Devils were too strong and pulled away for a 6-1 victory in a Class A North boys’ soccer game at Don Roux Field on Tuesday night.

The Red Eddies (3-6-4) made Lewiston (13-0) work for its shots early on, and the Blue Devils took advantage of an EL mistake to score their first goal. EL goalie Owen Mower couldn’t corral a bouncing ball in the box and Lewiston’s Maslah Hassan controlled the loose ball before firing it into the opening net.

“That first goal they scored, the one my keeper fumbled, that was just like a striker’s instinct. He was in the perfect position and he put himself there,” EL head coach Matt Andreasen said of Hassan.

The Blue Devils kept peppering the Red Eddies’ defense with shot after shot, but EL stood its ground — something McGraw wasn’t surprised about.

“I thought EL would do what they did, and we had to find out what was available, because they did a great job,” McGraw said.

Lewiston benefited from another EL mistake to score with 11 minutes left in the half. Noralddin Othman’s corner kick was redirected toward the net by Abdi Shariff and heading right to Mower — until it deflected off EL defender Jacob Kyajohnian and into the net.

McGraw said the two-goal lead was sufficient at the half in this rivalry game.

Andreasen, too, was happy where his team was 40 minutes in.

“I thought we were well-organized. I thought the boys obviously played very hard, I thought they played smart. They played clean for the most part,” Andreasen said. “When you play an opponent like Lewiston, who is just so dangerous all over the field, you have to play really clean and you really can’t make any mistakes at all. And unfortunately we made a couple of those.”

The Blue Devils showed their stuff in the second half. Abdulkarim Abdulle shook off a couple defenders in the box and scored three minutes in.

Then, nearing the eight-minute mark of the second half, Lewiston put the game out of reach, scoring a pair of goals in 26 seconds. Shariff and Abdulle did the honors.

“We got a couple openings and a couple quick goals and then that took the wind out of their sails a little bit, and then we just were able to play our game,” McGraw said.

“I think we just broke down for a minute, and Lewiston is so good that if you take 20 seconds off they’re capable of putting two goals by you,” Andreasen said.

Hassan closed out the scoring for the Blue Devils with 17:25 left in the game, but that wasn’t the end of the scoring in the game. Salah Ali heel-flicked a point-blank ball through the legs of Lewiston keeper Austin Wing with just over 10 minutes to play.

“I thought it was a reward,” Andreasen said of Ali’s goal, which was EL’s first against Lewiston this season. “I think the goal was good, if for no other reason it was a reward for the hard work. Just to see the ball go in the back of the net I think was good for them.”

Lewiston outshot the Red Eddies 27-4, but McGraw said his team still has work to do with one game left in the regular season.

“I’d like to see them move the ball a lot faster, play better combinations and not dribble too much,” McGraw said. “And that’s not just me, my coaches tell me that too. I rely a lot them.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

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