GARDINER — For the second time in three days, the Winslow High School boys lacrosse team found out what the competition was like at the top of Eastern Class B.
After falling to Maranacook/Winthrop 15-2 Monday, the Black Raiders fared better against Gardiner (6-1) Wednesday at Hoch Field but still suffered an 11-4 loss.
“We were in this one a lot longer than we were Monday. (It was) good competition,” Winslow coach Bruce Lambrecht said. “(Gardiner) Coach (K.C.) Johnson has a great team, a lot of skill. We hung with them for a while, but they were very tough on us defensively. We had too many turnovers, but we held them even in the second half.
“… We knew it was going to be tough. We thought we were prepared. Every game we get better, it’s just we have to learn to make our adjustments, show fruition sooner,”
Chase Begin led the Tigers (7-1) with four goals and an assist in what was an otherwise balanced scoring effort. Josh Caldwell, Walker Norton, Tristan Hebert, Jake Truman, Michael Glazier, Adrian Heath and Michael Poirier also scored for Gardiner. Hunter McCaslin had a hat trick for Winslow (3-3), while Jacob Houghton scored once and Nick Gurney made eight saves.
After some early resistance from the Black Raiders, Gardiner meticulously distanced itself from its competition. Relying on stout defense and ball control at the offensive end, the Tigers scored seven unanswered goals between the end of the first and start of the second quarters to take an 8-1 lead at the break.
“They chew up a lot of clock. They either get a goal or we knock it out of their hands and we turn it over somewhere in the field,” Lambrecht said. “Their defense is relentless. Kudos to them. We’re taking the positives away from this, but we still have a lot to learn.”
Winslow threatened to make it interesting by outscoring the Tigers 2-0 in the third quarter, but goals from Poirier and Begin early in the fourth shut the door on any potential comeback.
“I thought we played fairly decent,” Begin said. “Ball control could have been a little better on my part, on the team’s part, but I just tried to feed the ball to everybody. We all tried to feed the ball to everybody.
“…We would have liked to have played how we did against Windham (Tuesday). It was a little off, but we’ll just have to keep that in mind and step our game up in our next game.”
The Tigers entered Wednesday’s game fresh off their biggest win of the season, a 14-4 victory over previously unbeaten Windham (4-1 Eastern Class A).
Moving forward, Gardiner can expect to see more competition like that of Tuesday’s game. The Tigers next contest is Saturday at North Yarmouth Academy. Games against Oak Hill, Morse, Maranacook/Winthrop and Class A Mt. Ararat follow. Each team — with the exception of Mt. Ararat — would be a playoff team if the postseason began today.
“We just plug along and do our thing,” Johnson said. “The key is to keep taking the steps in the right direction and not backwards.”
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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