LEWISTON —The Lewiston boys’ cross country team has had the talent, depth and work ethic to produce its best season since 2008, when it won the KVAC and Eastern A and finished second in the state.

What the Blue Devils haven’t had so far is good luck.

A little luck could go a long way at Twin Brook in Cumberland on Saturday. The Devils are one of a number of teams trying to do what many observers deem virtually impossible — knock off defending state champion Scarborough. If they can pull it off, it would be there first state title since 2007 and their second overall.

Even if they don’t, Lewiston will have served notice that it is a force again in cross country, and could be a team to beat next fall.

With just two seniors returning this year, the Devils hoped to improve upon last year’s fourth-place finish in the KVAC and seventh place in Class A, but figured a lot would have to come together for a state title run.

“I thought that if we had the perfect season we could be as good as second in the state, because Scarborough is very deep and a very tough team to beat. They basically returned everybody from last year,” coach T.J. Niles said.

A strong start gave Niles and the Devils a notion that the perfect season might not be that far off. They finished third overall at a preseason co-ed meet at Cony, then lost to Edward Little by only a point in their next meet.

“We’ve progressed. We’ve gotten faster race after race,” Niles said.

But then the bad luck started to bite. Hopes of hosting a meet on their new home course on the high school campus this season were dashed by damage resulting from Hurricane Irene.

Yet Lewiston continued to build momentum during the regular season, posting  an impressive win over defending KVAC champion Mt. Ararat and winning a rematch with the rival Red Eddies.

With optimism running high heading into the conference meet two weeks ago, fate frowned on the Devils again. Senior Kevin Lavertu, one of their top three and their most experienced big-meet runner, came down with tonsillitis and they finished a distant third.

Competing without Lavertu at regionals last week, the Devils suffered another blow when their top runner, junior Mohamed Barre was tripped up by a tree root and finished fifth with a bruised quadriceps muscle. Lewiston placed third behind Mt. Ararat and Bangor, but thanks to Barre’s toughness, the continued emergence of junior Mohamed Awil and sophomore Mohamed Mohamed and top-40 finishes from senior Matt Chouinard and junior Jordan Balsamo, qualified for states.

“Everybody did well last meet, but I guess our place wasn’t so good,” Barre said. “Hopefully we can recover from that and do better this week.”

Barre, a junior, has emerged as the Devils’ pace-setter thanks to an improved work ethic and competitiveness that has helped him overcome an Achilles problem that  dogged him earlier this season, Niles said.

“He’s just getting better and stronger and smarter,” Niles said. “As a freshman, he was skipping practice all of the time and I went up to him one day and said, ‘Dude, if you miss another practice, you’re gone. If you want to be on this team, you need to be here every day.’ He went and talked to his mom and started getting to practice every day.”

“I guess I take it more serious and I’m less cocky,” Barre said. “I’ve been improving these last three years and I’ve been running better times pretty much every meet.”

In his first season on the team, Awil has quickly developed as one of the top rookie runners in Class A. Niles has held his training back, as he does with all new runners, so as not to overwork him. Having fresh legs helped Awil finish 13th in the KVAC meet and sixth at regionals.

Lavertu, the only Blue Devil to run at Twin Brook in the 2009 state meet, had his first workout since the conference meet last Monday and should be ready to contribute on Saturday.

Niles is cautiously optimistic that Lewiston could finish in the upper echelon.

“We could be anywhere from sixth to second in the state. It all depends on good a day we have and how well the other teams do and how well they peak also,” Niles said.

Regardless of how Saturday plays out, the Devils know they have a bright future, and maybe luck won’t have as much of a say in it.

“We’ll have strong team so we can do better next year,” Awil said. “We have two seniors, so we’re all coming back next year so we can do better than this year.”