The Lewiston Area Youth Hockey midgets are national champions, taking the title with a 5-2 victory over Delaware in a penalty-marred contest Sunday morning in Gates Mills, OH.

 “It really hasn’t set in fully yet,” St. Dom’s senior defenseman Dylan Rodrigue said about four hours after the game. “It’s kind of surreal.”

Lewiston, which consisted of players from Lewiston, St. Dom’s and Messalonskee high schools and Hebron Academy, rolled through the U18 Tier 2 tournament, winning all six of its games in the 1A group.

The Hebron Academy quartet of Alex Berry, Alex Doumeng, Shane Hearn and Drake Hart all scored in the final for Lewiston.

“They really came through,” coach Bob Parker said. “I think their experience and grittiness shined. They say the character in kids shows in the big game and they really stepped up.”

Ryan Lemelin of Lewiston High School added an empty-netter to clinch it with 43 seconds left.

Slow starts had been Lewiston’s only weakness throughout the tournament, and it trailed 1-0 on John Charles Brancaccio’s goal 6:11 into the game.

“It was a tight checking game as the first period unfolded,” Parker said. “They were controlling the puck in our zone. They were moving around and got a lot of scoring opportunities.”

Lewiston needed only 13 seconds to respond, as Berry tied the game with a goal assisted by Lemelin and Cody Rodrigue.

“After that, we really took it to them,” said Lewiston goalie Cam Poussard, whose team was outshot, 11-8, in the opening period. “They were definitely taking it to us in the first period. They were by far the best team we saw in the entire tournament, but I think taking their momentum away that quickly kind of deflated them.”

Doumeng put Lewiston in front for good with 2:34 left in the first period.

Lewiston dominated the second period, taking a 3-1 lead a little over three minutes in when Travis St. Pierre and Alex Mills set up Hart’s power play goal.

“The turning point, I think, was getting that third goal,” said Poussard, the Travis Roy Award winner from Lewiston High School who made 18 saves for Lewiston. “They started getting chippy after that because we were skating all over them.”

“We just have a lot of depth and a lot of speed,” said Zachary Parker, a senior defenseman from Lewiston. “They just couldn’t keep up with us. They tried to lay the body on us and we tried to take it as best we could.”

Hart set up Hearn for Lewiston’s second power play goal to make it 4-1 with 12:09 to go in the game. Keegan Hinson pulled Delaware back within two goals with 2:41 remaining, but that was as close as the Ducks would get.

The game featured 151 penalty minutes, including a bench-clearing brawl with two seconds remaining that resulted in six game misconducts on each team and five fighting penalties per side.

“It started off with one hit that was very severe,” Dylan Rodrigue said. “Lonnie Taylor got boarded and it got very chippy after that.”

“They were getting a lot of cheap, cheap non-hockey stuff out there,” Bob Parker said. “I tried to keep my guys in line, but there was a lot of stuff being done on the ice that just agitated us. It was something that if you asked us if we wanted to do that, I would say definitely not. I didn’t want any physical confrontations.”

Lewiston outshot Delaware, 36-20 and went 2 for 12 on the power play while holding Delaware scoreless in 11 chances with the extra skater.

 “That was huge,” Poussard said of Lewiston’s penalty killing. “I think we let up only two even-strength goals the entire tournament before this game, so we knew we had to play strong PK.”

In the five-day tournament, Lewiston outscored the opposition, 50-12.

Bringing talent from four different schools together wasn’t easy, Bob Parker said.

“I think a huge, huge part is the team chemistry,” he said. “If these kids didn’t really want to be together, it would have showed on the ice because we couldn’t spend much time together during the season. As a coach, you coach the x’s and o’s, but the players at this level usually police themselves. Our captain, Alex Mills, deserves a lot of credit for .”

“Everyone just seemed to work together real well,” Poussard said. “We had the Hebron kids all on the same line, and the Lewiston and St. Dom’s kids have been playing together since they were mites. We just had a lot of confidence in one another.”

The LAYHL midgets flew home Sunday night with tangible evidence that they are champions — a red-white-and-blue banner.

“It feels incredible,” Dylan Rodrigue said. “After both Lewiston and St. Dom’s the last couple of years not being able to capitalize in the state game, it means a whole lot to everybody, and that includes the guys from Messalonskee and Hebron Academy.”

“I just can’t wait to see the banner up in the Colisee,” Zachary Parker said.