AUBURN — Emma Theriault wanted to get one more victory against Lewiston in her athletic career after not recording a win against the Blue Devils during the hockey season this past winter.

The senior played a key role Monday, scoring two goals, as the Saints defeated the Blue Devils in a hockey-like score of 5-4 in a girls lacrosse rivalry game.

“It’s great, especially coming off that hockey season,” Theriault said. “I think for a lot of girls, this game means a lot, so it’s good to win.”

The Saints were coming off another close game against Lake Region last Wednesday which they won 6-4. They were able to clean up a few things and apply that experience gained against the Lakers to lead them to victory over the Blue Devils.

“We corrected some things, like the stall at the end was definitely a lot cleaner — we turned it over (about) three times last week,” Saints coach Leslie Klenk said. “So, we worked on that and we worked on being more patient down here (in the offensive end), which we were. (Lewiston) did a really good job of containing us. We continued having the problem of not seeing our free cutters.”

Lewiston coach Tracey Blaisdell saw a lot of positives in defeat.

“We’ve continued to evolve, our defense has made some amazing gains and our transition has been doing much better,” Blaisdell said. “(Lewiston goalie) CC Racine, someone told me, (had a) 73 (save percentage) today. She continues to amaze me. I think our defense did a great job shutting down (St. Dom’s). This was one of the lower scoring games St. Dom’s has had.”

Both teams traded free-position goals early, as Shauna Leblanc gave the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead and Charlotte Gastonguay responded for the Saints.

Christine Chasse gave Lewiston their only multi-goal lead with a pair of goals. First, she worked her way through the Saints defense to make it 2-1 and then scoring again 10 minutes into the game to five the Blue Devils a 3-1 advantage.

Racine did her part to keep the Saints offense at bay, making two key saves in the middle of the first half on St. Dom’s free-position chances.

Racine made eight saves. Her counterpart in the Saints goal, Simone Long, made five saves in the game.

St. Dom’s made an adjustment the next two times Gastonguay had free-position opportunities. Instead of taking a shot off the free position, she turned into a point guard of sorts and found open teammates.

First, she found Mia-Angelina Leslie for the goal. The second assist went to Theriault for her first goal of the day, which tied the game at 3-3.

“(Racine) is a really good goalie and we decided our shots weren’t good enough to get in past her,” Klenk said. “We said we needed to use alternatives there. Our goal was to pass it (for) it to go in.”

St. Dom’s controlled the play for the first portion of the second half, taking its time and finding a shooting lane. Theriault created a shooting chance of her own by cutting toward the goal where Avery Lutrzykowski found her. Theriault was slightly off-balance when she fired the shot past Racine.

“I’ve been making that cut, Avery finally saw it and she hit me,” Theriault said. “I was running through and maybe got a little excited, then I shot it.”

Lutrzykowski added the game-winning goal later in the second half.

The Saints (5-0) thought they doubled the lead to 6-3 in the final five minutes, but a crease violation wiped out the goal.

The non-goal gave the Blue Devils (4-4) momentum, something they didn’t have much in the second half. Chasse completed her hat trick with 2:08 to play in the game.

However, that was the last time a Blue Devils player controlled the ball. The Saints called a timeout after the goal, and their plan was simple: if they won the draw, hold the ball. They won the draw and held the ball until the horn sounded.

Blaisdell wanted her players to press and double team a little more than they did, but she chalks that up to inexperience in that situation.

“The fact is they are learning and they are eager,” Blaisdell said. “Their hearts were in the whole game. I think it’s good, I think it’s a big improvement and I feel we did an outstanding job today.”

Copy the Story Link