The Gardiner Area High School boys lacrosse team is approaching the start of this season like it did the previous one.

“Slow and steady,” Gardiner coach K.C. Johnson said. “We’re going with the same tempo we did last year. We implement a lot of things during the season and we are very methodical. We want to make sure we are peaking at the right time. But we’ll be ready to go.”

Gardiner opens the season Friday against rival Maranacook/Winthrop, a rematch of an Eastern B quarterfinal game last season. The Tigers edged the Black Bears 6-5 en route to a berth in the regional finals.

“We’re excited to have Gardiner as our first game,” Maranacook/Winthrop coach Jared Knowlton said. “We have a lot of good returners and I think we’ll show them a good game. We’re looking forward to it.”

Added Johnson, whose team prepared for the game with scrimmages against Cony, Gorham and Massabesic: “I’m happy with the defense right now. I’m feeling pretty good about our middie and attack play. The biggest struggle is that it’s the day before vacation. We also lost some valuable, valuable seniors. I think we’re filling them in, but Maranacook will be tough. They are not your normal second-year program.”

The Black Bears, led by Luke Emery, impressed in their varsity debut last season.

Gardiner and Maranacook/Winthrop, as well as St. Dominic and Morse, are among the teams to beat in Class B.

The game Friday should provide a benchmark for where each team is at, Johnson said.

“It’ll be interesting,” he said. “We don’t have crossovers this year, so every game is really big for us.”

• • •

Cony will host one of its largest track and field meets of the season Thursday, when it welcomes Maranacook, Mt. Blue, Winslow and Gardiner.

“It’s not out of the question that we could have 300 kids here,” Cony co-coach Jon Millett said. “It’s a pretty big meet. There will be some pretty good-sized teams here.”

And they will enter the meet with different approaches.

“The big goal is to get as many kids as we can qualified for the KVACs and states,” Millett said. “We have five regular season meets so every single meet is critical to getting kids qualified. We can’t approach these meets lightly. Every one of them is big.”

Added Winslow coach Shawn Carey: “There are not many regular season meets so you are looking for kids to perform. We’ll move people around a lot. We have some returners and we are looking forward to seeing how they’ll do. We’re looking for good first outcomes for them.”

Maranacook coach Ronn Gifford, whose boys team is the defending Class C state champ, said the goal Thursday is get his newcomers acclimated to a big meet.

The Black Bears have an abundance of newcomers, including about half the boys team.

“The first meet, some of the veterans will probably qualify,” he said. “I’m trying more to get a large number of new kids used to a meet, the jitters and so forth. We want to get them used to the preparation that you need to do to get ready for each event and how to handle downtime after events. We want to get them comfortable with the process.”

• • •

The Richmond softball team played a scrimmage Tuesday and will compete in three more next week.

In between, the Bobcats will get their sea legs under them.

Richmond opens the season Saturday at Vinalhaven before returning to exhibition play during school vacation next week.

“It’s an interesting way to open the season,” Richmond coach Rick Coughlin said. “We haven’t played them over there in years. I’ve never been out there for softball.”

The Bobcats will depart at 7 Saturday morning, catch an 8:45 ferry and reach the island about an hour before the 11 a.m. game.

Richmond will play Mt. Abram, Telstar and Monmouth in exhibition games next week. The exhibitions come at a good time for the Bobcats, who will be without several key players.

“We have five players who are going on trips,” Coughlin said. “We’re going out to Vinalhaven with just 12 or 13 players. It’s a good thing we have good pitching.”

Leandra Martin will pitch the opener for Richmond.

The Bobcats will be without outfielders Noell Acord and Haley Murphy. Also, center fielder Payton Johnson is injured and will miss the game Saturday.

“It will be good to get that one out of the way Saturday,” Coughlin said. “Then we’ll go out next week and play some tough teams. It’s what we need . We need teams of that quality to get us ready. We’ll see three good pitchers in row.”

• • •

The Cony softball team will play a scrimmage against Gardiner for the first time in several years.

The teams will square off today at 4 p.m. at Cony.

“It came together at the last minute,” Cony coach Rocky Gaslin said. “Some of the kids know their players and asked about playing. I called them up and we both had an open date. It worked out.”

The Rams don’t open the season until April 18. Gaslin said they are “ready to play for sure.”

“There are always things to work on,” he said. “We need to work on our defense and base running, but we are ready. We’ve been hitting well and pitching well.”

Bill Stewart — 621-5640

bstewart@centralmaine.com

Copy the Story Link