LEWISTON — Brunswick’s boys lacrosse squad has been hunkered down inside its gym going on four weeks now, only venturing outside for a single practice and its opening win over Gardiner.
On Wednesday, the Dragons (2-0) was finally able to get out and run on Lewiston High School’s new turf field and dominated the Blue Devils (2-1) in a 14-5 win.
“They adapted really well,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said. “Obviously, having been in a gym and playing small-sided stuff and stuff like that, coming outside is going to be one of those, ‘How are we going to be able to throw a 20-yard pass, how are we going to react on our clears,’ stuff like that. I think the guys did really well.”
Brunswick hogged a lot of the possession in the early going. Aiden Glover followed up his eight-assist performance in the Dragon’s 16-8 win over Gardiner with six assists on Wednesday, including the opening three.
Brunswick’s first three foals were all orchestrated from behind the net, with Glover finding three different goal scorers off moves from the back. After all three passes, Brunswick shot quickly and accurately and found itself up 3-0 just four minutes into the game.
Glover scored the fourth goal of the game after running from the left side all the way to the right and finding a corner to score on. Brunswick was up 7-2 after the first period as it held almost all of the possession outside of goals from Sam Payne and Logan Michaud.
The Dragons took advantage of defensive mistakes on Lewiston’s part and jumped out to what turned into an insurmountable lead.
“I think our wing play was really good, our (face off-get off player) was doing an awesome job of mucking it up, and I know their fo-go is pretty good, too,” Aiden Glover said. “I think ours did a great job getting ground balls and some of our other guys did a good job of picking up ground balls and just working.
“I think the slide was coming in a little quick and the two-side was coming in a little slower, so we were able to either get a quick two-pass or get it past the person who slid.”
The second quarter was much of the same for Brunswick. Glover found Nolan Lyne for the opening goal of the quarter a minute in, followed by Nate Girardin’s second of four goals on the night with 7:12 left to play in the first half. Lewiston goalie Hunter Steele made six of his 11 saves in the second period but received no help on the offensive end as the Blue Devils were scoreless in the quarter.
Glover closed out the quarter with another assist and goal to extend the Dragons’ lead to 11-2 at halftime.
It was obvious that Brunswick’s players were ready to get outside and just play.
“I’ve been doing this for over 20 years now and we usually play a solid two-to-three weeks in the gym, and this year we are on our fourth week,” Don Glover said. “We have some pretty good knowledge of what it takes for us to build something in the gym so that when we get outside we’re ready. I wouldn’t say there are any advantages, but it doesn’t become a huge disadvantage for us.”
Lewiston was looking to control more of the possession in the second half.
“They just took really good care of the ball and they were hustling on ground balls and swarming them and were beating us to the 50-50 balls,” Lewiston coach Ben Fournier said. “They just took really good care of the ball, and it’s Brunswick, so they’re going to execute on their chances, they’re not going to waste them and they made us pay.”
Michaud scored in the third period for the only goal of the frame off an assist from Payne. In the fourth, Payne scored twice to secure a hat-trick for Lewiston, but Brunswick still found the back of the net three more times.
Fournier saw a lot on the defensive side that needs to be fixed.
“In the first half, we were sliding a little bit early and sometimes when it wasn’t necessary,” Fournier said. “We talked about that (at halftime), holding off on the slide so that we didn’t get beat, and Brunswick is so good at finding the open man that once you send that slide the pass is threading the needle and they’re on the attack. This exposed a lot of things that we need to work on in order to be successful this season, so it’s a good time for it. Luckily, this is the first game we filmed, so we are going to dissect this film and button everything up.”
Brunswick’s Nolan Lyne and Aiden Glover each scored three goals and Girardin tacked on four.
Don Glover was able to see what his team was capable being outside, but he knew what he had in his attack all along.
“(Aiden Glover) has good field vision but can get a goal if he wants to get a goal,” Don Glover said. “Nate has developed into an incredible shooter with great agility and dodging. They had a good combination going back and forth.”
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