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WATERVILLE — During the regular season, the Messalonskee boys lacrosse team averaged more than 13 goals a game. So it was more than just a little stunning to see the Eagles scoring one goal — total — in the first half of Wednesday afternoon’s Eastern A quarterfinal game with Portland.
“I don’t think we’re a low-powered offense,” attacker Ben Weeks said. “We need more than one goal at half. So Coach kind of emphasized that a little bit, that we needed to start putting the ball in the net, and it just happened.”
That emphasis — plus the switch of midfielder Ryan Erskine to more of an offensive role — lifted the Eagles to five goals in the third quarter, and they held on for a 7-5 win at Thomas College.
Weeks scored five goals for No. 2 Messalonskee (10-3), which will face No. 3 Cheverus in the semifinals. Portland, the seventh seed, ends up 6-7.
The Messalonskee boys and girls will again play a doubleheader at Thomas College. It’s scheduled for Friday (boys at 4 p.m., girls at 6:30), with a rain date of Saturday (girls at 5, boys at 7).
Portland also has a solid offense, led by D.J. Cooper, Luigi Grimaldi and Mike Fuller. Grimaldi and Fuller each had a goal in the first quarter to put the Bulldogs ahead 2-0.
“They had some players coming in we knew were going to be pretty tough to stop,” Messalonskee coach Tom Sheridan said.
Messalonskee kept getting thwarted by Portland goalie Nate Martin, and the only score for the Eagles in the first half came when Weeks sent one home with 7 minutes, 44 seconds to play in the second quarter. That was it for scoring, through, as the first half ended with more timeouts (four) than goals (three).
“We had our chances,” Sheridan said. “We just didn’t finish.”
Perhaps Messalonskee had been in a funk since losing 15-6 to Brunswick in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A championship game. If that were the case, the Eagles snapped out of it as soon as play began in the second half. They not only looked more spirited, they started scoring goals again. Weeks came from the back of the net for a goal just 59 seconds into the third quarter, and Dylan Burton and Weeks followed with man-up goals for a 4-2 lead.
“I don’t know if we were that focused in the beginning, honestly,” Weeks said. “We made some changes — put one of our top midfielders, Ryan Erskine, down there (on offense) — and then we just started clicking.”
Weeks had the highlight goal of the game a couple minutes later, bouncing off two defenders like a running back as he got stood up, but still held on to the ball before spinning for a goal to make it 5-2. Sawyer Michaud dashed from right to left across the goal and put one in with 18.8 seconds left, and the Eagles were on top 6-2 at the end of the third quarter.
Portland fought back with two goals from Cooper and another from Grimaldi, but a steal and long rush by Erskine led to another goal for Weeks. Messalonskee’s lead was whittled down to 7-5 with 4:01 still to go in the third quarter, but goalie Jake Smith made two tough saves on Fuller, and Fuller had another shot hit the post.
“I thought Ryan Erskine had a hell of a game too, a hard-working day out there,” Sheridan said. “Dylan Burton came alive. Jack Bernatchez was working hard out there. Our goalie and our defense played well today, too.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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