Edward Little’s Leighton Girardin, left, kicks the ball forward before scooping it up after winning a faceoff against Brunswick’s Max Burtis during Thursday afternoon’s game at Walton Field in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

AUBURN — Edward Little capitalized on Brunswick’s mistakes — in the first half.

The second half?

That was a different story. The Dragons cleaned up their mistakes and pulled away for an 18-8 victory in a boys’ KVAC lacrosse contest at the Walton School. The two teams entered halftime tied at six.

EL coach Jim Dock thought his team was able to catch the Dragons off guard.

“We played a very good game the first half,” Dock said. “I don’t think they had any idea that we were be able to run with them….we had a one-goal lead on them.”

It was Brunswick that got off to a quick start when Nolan Lyne put the Dragons up 2-0 before the two minute mark. Max Gramins made it 3-0 at the 3:33 mark.

EL (2-2) started to chip away at the deficit; Ben Feldman put home two goals that were assisted by Tyler Morin. Lyne completed the hat trick with 1:59 remaining in the first quarter and Cam Audette cut the deficit back to one with 42 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Both teams settled down in the second. Eli Thibodeau tied the game at four for Edward Little at the 6:08 mark on a feed from Morin. Exactly four minutes later, Spencer Frahm gave the Red Eddies their only lead of the contest.

“They have some good athletes and they are well coached,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said. “They played hard and did the little things right and we were kind of frustrated at times. We didn’t take care of the ball as well as we should have in the first half. They are teenage boys, let’s settle down and play. Lets really think about what we want to execute. We did a lot better in the second half.”

Brunswick (5-1) responded with two goals a minute apart. Aiden Glover tied the game at the 11:46 mark and he assisted on Nate Girardin’s goal. Morin tied the game back up at six with 1:47 remaining in the first half.

The turning point of the contest came in the dying seconds of the second quarter when Brunswick went a man up for 30 seconds. They called a timeout with seven seconds remaining in the half and held the ball to be able to start the second half with possession.

Henry Doherty scored five seconds in.

“The halftime piece was, we are going into the second half with a possession, lets just start the tide rolling the other way,” Glover said. “We kind of settled in, we got our man up unit out and get a good quality shot – get that goal, now we are moving in the right direction.”

The Dragons were off and running from there. Doherty added two more goals in the quarter, Gramins added a hat trick of his own in the quarter and Girardin added three more goals to his total as Brunswick held a 16-6 lead to finish the third.

“We all work as a team, some games more than others,” Gramins said. “Some people show up a little bit more and it was a great game for me.”

Gramins finished with the four goals and three assists.

Thibodeau stopped the run of Brunswick goals when he scored 8:21 into the fourth quarter. Jacob Belanger scored twice for Brunswick and Caleb Davis capped EL’s scoring in the final minute of the contest.

Gunner Winslow made 28 saves for Edward Little while Connor Pendergast made five saves for Brunswick.

“Just an outstanding effort for a guy who’s playing his first season in net,” Dock said of Winslow.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com

Brunswick’s Ryan Duffy, right, tries to block a shot by Edward Little’s Ben Feldman as he takes a shot and scores on Brunswick goalie Connor Pendergast, left, during Thursday afternoon’s game in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

Brunswick’s Connor Foye, center, concentrates on catching a loose ball while being chased by Edward Little’s Alex Landry, left and Leighton Girardin, right, during Thursday’s game in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)