LEWISTON — Suab Nur’s second goal of Thursday’s game came from much closer to the net than his first, but it put Lewiston farther ahead than rival Edward Little could come back from.

The Blue Devils haven’t given up more than two goals in a game all year, and the Red Eddies didn’t end that streak in a 3-0 Lewiston victory at Don Roux Field.

“It’s hard enough to score one goal against Lewiston, with all the possession that they have. So when we went down two (goals), I think it kind of got us in our gut a little bit,” Edward Little coach Tim Mains said. “When that third one went in, that’s a tough one to swallow.”

“The third goal is really important because if you have a two-goal lead it’s tenuous,” Lewiston coach Mike McGraw said. “Because the way EL was playing they could bust one in, with creating a little bit of chaos.

“They go 2-1 and you have to worry about a tying goal. But you go up by three, it’s going to be very hard for them to try to come back, even if they did score another goal.”

Nur’s fancy footwork in the box created an opening for him to send a low shot past Red Eddies (4-4) goalie Mack Sampson midway through the second half. It looked a lot different than his first-half goal, which was a rocket from just inside 30 yards when scoring was hard to come by for either side.

“I saw the keeper, he was out, and then I just took the shot, and it went in,” Nur said. “I had no other options. I tried to pass the ball, but then no one was around me, so I had to take that shot, and then it went in, luckily.”

That long-range goal was the only goal of the first half, and the Blue Devils (9-0) took a slim 1-0 into halftime. The shots on goal were even at 2-2, and the Red Eddies made their rivals work at both ends.

“We were just containing them. We did a really good job keeping them in front of us,” Mains said. “All their shots early were coming from outside the 18, pretty well outside the 18. And obviously that was part of our game plan, to keep the play in front of us and try to capitalize on their mistakes and get some counterattacks.”

EL nearly scored the game’s first goal, but Austin Brown’s shot went off Lewiston goalie Michael Belleau and off the bar, and Josh Lavigne’s rebound chance sailed high.

The Red Eddies made Belleau move around more early in the second half, through an increased number of shots on goal and Jacob Jackson flip throw-ins that made it all the way to the keeper’s gloves. But nothing made it past Belleau.

“I thought we had some opportunities in the first half, had some early in the second half, just weren’t able to put any away,” Mains said.

“(Belleau) was huge,” McGraw said. “The catch, the tip over, and the contact that he had showed a lot of maturity, or getting there anyway.”

Sampson was about as equally stingy, save for Nur’s first-half strike. But he was helpless when Lewiston senior scoring machine Bilal Hersi received a pinpoint through-ball from Abdilahi Abdi about 15 minutes into the second half. Hersi pushed ahead for some separation from his defender and sent a shot from the left side of the box inside the right post.

Nur’s second goal also came from the left side, though his dribble around a defender brought him closer to the middle of the box.

“I just do step-overs and then cut inside, and the goal was there,” Nur said.

Belleau finished with five saves for the shutout. Sampson made four saves, and Connor McLean played the final six minutes in goal for EL.

“Honestly, I’m thrilled with the way that they played. They have nothing to hang their head about,” Mains said. “If we play like that moving forward, we’re not going to be 4-4 for very long. We’re not going to be .500 for very long. I think we’ll win a lot of games if we play with that effort day in and day out.”

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