LEWISTON — Lewiston trailed early, a place it is not used to being, during a key KVAC clash against Camden Hills.

The Blue Devils answered quickly and they started to dominate possession before finishing off a 3-1 victory over the Windjammers on Saturday afternoon. 

Camden Hills (10-2-1) got on the scoreboard first, just eight minutes into the game. 

When Lewiston (12-0-1) misplayed a ball right outside of the top of the penalty box, Evan Constantine took over possession for Camden Hills. Constantine then found Cameron Brown on the left corner of the box, who whipped in a cross to the far post and found Ben Schenk for a header past Lewiston goalkeeper Tanner Anctil to give the Windjammers a 1-0 advantage early. 

With 25 minutes remaining in the first half, Lewiston had a corner from the right side swung into the box. Many players went up to head the ball but a Camden Hills player knocked the ball into their own net, which tied the game at 1-1. 

Less than two minutes later, Romano Bassa found himself with the ball on the right side of the final third of the field. Bassa made a move past the first defender and into the penalty box when he cut into the middle of the box, around another defender, and shot into the bottom-left corner to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead. 

“At first, I saw Igor (Domingues) making a run and I thought about passing to him, but I saw the defender coming at me and so I cut inside and saw the space and just shot it and it went in,” Bassa said. 

“Romano is the most unsung hero on this team,” Lewiston coach Dan Gish said. “You’ve got a bunch of guys that are good but he’s getting the ball more now and they’re sharing the wealth. You don’t worry about his side.”

Lewiston continued to pressure Camden Hills late into the half as the build-up in play got better but the Blue Devils were unable to double their lead before the halftime buzzer. 

Camden Hills’ only loss of the season was to Lewiston at Camden Hills, 4-2 to start the season, and Windjammers coach Ryan Hurley said that both teams improved greatly over the regular season. 

“I think we’ve both changed a lot and we’re both much better,” Hurley said. “They play really well here. We’ve only played two games on turf and it’s our third game in five days, and I think we’ve both changed a lot. I thought it was really even and the stats were close to each other. Hopefully we see them again.”

Just over five minutes into the second half, Shafi Ibrahim widened Lewiston’s lead on a 30-yard strike into the top-left corner of the Camden Hills net to give the Blue Devils a 3-1 lead. 

Ibrahim soon went to the bench for the rest of the game as Lewiston was trying to conserve some players with the Class A playoffs right around the corner. 

“We had to change some personnel, we rested some guys, it’s the regular season and we don’t want to lose guys for the playoffs,” Gish said. “We are managing it. We had a 3-1 lead, why risk it?”

Lewiston’s midfield and defense controlled the second half and ended any Camden Hills run at goal pretty quickly. Different players stepped up for the Blue Devils when starters went out of the game and Gish was happy with how his team performed. 

“Like I said before, we have guys that we can plug in that respond,” Gish said. “Obed Antonio responded today and it was nice, Moses (Lumu) did a great job. Those are things you need, you need guys that step up and they did it against Bangor, too. The goal is to be at full strength for playoffs. We increased the pressure on the ball. The way we teach it, all 11 guys are defenders. I don’t care if you’re the 10th guy out back.”

Lewiston goalkeeper Tanner Anctil made one save, while Camden Hills’ Henry Pharris saved five shots.

Related Stories