AUBURN — Andrew Clements and Edward Little capitalized on enough of their scoring chances to take down Oxford Hills 7-5 in a boys lacrosse season opener on Thursday.

Clements paced the Red Eddies’ attack with six goals.

“Andrew is always someone who you can count on in the situation,” Edward Little coach Tyler Haskell said. “Whenever I look towards him during the game and ask him to do something, the only thing that comes out of his mouth is, ‘Yes, coach,’ or, ‘What do I need to do to essentially put the team on my back.'”

Clements said losing 7-6 and 13-1 last season to the Vikings was still on the Red Eddies’ minds.

“It’s the first game of the season, we didn’t know what to expect,” Clements said. “We lost last year to these guys, so we wanted to come out strong and get as many chances as possible.”

Oxford Hills’ Owen Marr nearly matched Clements’ output, scoring four of the Vikings’ five goals.

“He was able to find the holes and take advantage of that,” Oxford Hills coach Hunter Rowell said. “As you saw later in the game, they were able to lock that off and we had to change it up a little bit there. But, yeah, he had a great game; so did everyone else.”

Haskell credited Edward Little junior Mayson Larochelle for providing good defense on Marr as the game went along.

“It was definitely a battle to play against him and contain him,” Haskell said of Marr. “He’s a very good player, as you see in the first half, he was lights out. We came up with a plan to play him a little closer off the ball and deny him the ball. I feel like that was the real difference-maker. Mason Larochelle really stepped it up in the second half and neutralized him a little bit.”

VIKINGS START FAST

After Edward Little spent a few minutes in the first quarter moving the ball around and trying to set up a shot attempt, Oxford Hills flipped the field and took a 1-0 lead on Marr’s first goal.

The Vikings added two more goals one minute later in the opening period. Jack Bessette found the back of the net and Marr potted his second for a 3-0 advantage.

Clements won the faceoff after Marr’s goal and split through the Vikings’ defense and got the Red Eddies on the board with a goal 9:11 into the first.

“We took it quarter-by-quarter. The first quarter was a little rough,” Haskell said. “We noticed they were sitting in a zone, and we dropped in a different set to play chess in that situation. We made it a point to win every quarter after that — which we did. Proud of the boys on how they grinded.”

Edward Little dictated the play early in the second quarter and two straight goals by Clements tied the game 3-3. Ryan Mileikis set up the first of those two scores.

Brycen Burnham found Marr driving to the net with a pass, and Marr put the ball past Edward Little goalie Logan Billings (nine saves) for the only Vikings goal of the second quarter.

Early in the third period, Clements attacked the middle of the field and scored to even the contest at 4-4.

Marr put Oxford Hills back on top, netting a man-up goal off pass from Bessette midway through the third.

Jack Pepin’s shot beat Oxford Hills goalie Chase Edmunds (eight saves) for a Red Eddies goal near the end of the third quarter, and the game went to the fourth tied 5-5.

Shortly before the midway point of the final quarter, a shot by Edward Little’s Landon Nagy hit the post. However, a few minutes later, Clements’ bounce shot beat Edmunds to put the Red Eddies up 6-5.

Clements added an insurance goal nearly nine minutes into the fourth.

“I am always looking at giving other people some opportunities because I get tired sometimes,” Clements said with a chuckle.

The Vikings put pressure on the Red Eddies in the final minutes, but didn’t get any shots past Billings.

“I think a lot of things went right today,” Rowell said. “It’s just those few things that didn’t and it wasn’t our day.”

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