LEWISTON – Six to five, and still alive.

Lewiston High School has found itself on the wrong end of that nailbiting score more than once in this topsy-turvy boys’ lacrosse season.

The Blue Devils had a bid to upset Brunswick and were undone by offsetting illegal stick penalties. A later chance to maintain its lifetime of mastery against Edward Little unraveled by the same score – again, in part, due to an equipment violation.

Thursday night, given a second opportunity against its rival, Lewiston’s numbers finally popped up. Alex Stone’s man-advantage goal with 2:22 remaining in regulation gave No. 4 Lewiston a 6-5 victory over No. 5 EL in an Eastern Class A quarterfinal at Don Roux Field.

Sophomore Seth Mason assisted senior Stone’s game-winning strike, one that vaulted Lewiston (7-6) into a semifinal road rematch against No. 1 Brunswick at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

“Considering our team at the beginning of the season, I didn’t think we had much of a shot to make the playoffs,” said Stone, one of only five senior Blue Devils.

The one-goal verdict nine days ago put EL (4-9) into the postseason and set up a third-and-deciding game in the Twin Cities series.

It was a worthy sequel. Sam Cloutier’s natural hat trick gave Lewiston a 3-0 lead before EL tethered two at the end of the half and two more to start the third period and grabbed a 4-3 lead.

“Usually it’s not that great of a game, but this year they put together a great team and gave it to us,” Stone said.

Craig Sirois collected two third-period goals for the Devils, including a connection just after an EL penalty expired to make it 5-5 with 44 seconds remaining.

Mason’s go-ahead goal didn’t get Lewiston out of the woods. The Devils drew one-minute penalties for unncessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct to give EL odd numbers for the final 41.5 seconds of regulation.

EL earned the shot it wanted off the stick of junior Tom Lynch, but sophomore goaltender Jesse Leeman made his 15th save of the game. Lewiston recovered the resulting groundball and cleared it to Curtis Robinson, who ran out the clock.

“They had a run, and we had a counterpunch, which was good. That’s what we’ve been talking about all year,” said Lewiston coach John Brubaker. “It’s a game of runs and weathering the other team’s storm.”

Tim Brodsky registered two goals and an assist and was the Eddies’ other potential option on the game-ending shot.

Tyler Raymond, Isaiah Rembert and Lynch each added a goal for EL. Zach Bennett assisted a pair.

“They played better than they did last time. They had a little motivation, They probably wanted to get a little revenge. We knew that coming in,” said EL coach Andy MacIsaac. “They changed up their defense a little bit on us, and that kept us confused for a good portion of the first half until we adapted to it.”

Henry Moniz and Derek Vachon each made five saves in the EL cage.