AUBURN — Edward Little and St. Dominic Academy were both facing the reality that Tuesday’s cross-town boys’ lacrosse clash could have been the end to their respective seasons. The Red Eddies, however, knew that a victory could go a long way in extending their season into the playoffs. So they took care of business, beating the Saints 16-0 at Edward Little High School.

The Red Eddies (7-5) had been in must-win mode since a close loss to rival Lewiston nearly two weeks ago. They took care of business against Oxford Hills and Mt. Ararat last week, then had to do the same against St. Dom’s (0-12) to put themselves in position to make the playoffs, and as head coach Dave Barton said, have the chips fall in their favor.

“We’ve talked about that all week. We’ve had three games in eight days here, and we talked about we got to handle what we can do. And we did it,” Barton said. “(The players are) certainly proud of that. I’m proud of them for it.”

Edward Little got those chips to fall their way later in the day, with Massabesic beating Portland — which could have leap-frogged EL for the last Class A North playoff spot.

The Red Eddies took control early, getting a goal from Ganan Mancini 88 seconds in, and then another three minutes later. Isaac Cote scored two goals of his own and Spencer Frahn added another to put EL on top 5-0 after one quarter.

Cote scored three more in the second quarter and Eli McBride added a pair, making it 10-0 at halftime. The Red Eddies held a 21-1 advantage in shots-on-goal over the Saints in the first half.

“We knew going into this game it would be a battle,” St. Dom’s coach Ralph Nelson said. “We knew we would definitely see some adversity on the field, as far as skill and as far as depth.”

Cote and Matt Verrill scored 30 seconds apart early in the third quarter to make it 12-0 and start a running clock. Cote then scored his last goal and Mark Reyes found the back of the net for a 14-0 EL lead after three quarters.

Ben Feldman and McBride finished out the scoring in the fourth quarter.

Cote finished with seven goals and an assist in his final regular-season game for the Red Eddies.

“He’s a senior that’s put a lot of work in,” Barton said of Cote. “And so to see him come out on Senior Day and do things the right way — talking like putting the stick in his left hand and doing things the way that we’ve been preaching since the beginning of the season — it’s awesome to see a transformation from a guy like that. Just a good kid that does it the right way.”

Alex Michaud and Brandon Glover made the Red Eddies work for those goals, despite the lopsided score. Michaud started in goal for the Saints and played the first three quarters, stopping 16 shots. Glover, a freshman, made five saves in the fourth.

“When you see that many shots, you’re not going to save them all,” Nelson said. “But the ones that they were saving were the ones that they needed to save. We put a lot of pressure on our goalies.”

Tuesday’s loss put an end to a difficult first season for Nelson at the helm of St. Dom’s. He said his young team learned to play with discipline and play as a team, among other points of progress.

“This year we were really looking for ‘and’ guys. Guys that were playing defense and offense,” Nelson said. “We needed help in every facet of the game.”

The Red Eddies needed help to get into the playoffs, and they got it. That’s something Barton, also in his first year, was hoping for after his team’s victory to end the regular season.

“I hope there’s more lacrosse in our future because I think we’re just peaking here,” Barton said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com