AUGUSTA — The third quarter proved to be the difference in the first meeting this season between the Cony and Winslow High School boys lacrosse teams.

The same was true for the rematch Monday afternoon at Alumni Field.

Senior Dale Lapierre scored four of Cony’s eight goals in the third quarter as the Rams went on to deal the Black Raiders an 18-11 defeat in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B game. Lapierre finished with a career-high six goals for the Rams, who bested Winslow 11-8 on April 30 at Thomas College in their first meeting this season thanks to a stretch of five unanswered goals in the third quarter.

“What motivated me was hearing them cheering, because it was a really close game,” Lapierre said. “Hearing them cheer just motivated me to play harder and put the game away.”

Chad Bickford added five goals and an assist for Cony (6-0), Bret Sproul finished with three goals and five assists, and Tyler Sproul notched three goals and an assist. Jacob Houghton paced Winslow (2-3) with four goals and an assist while Jimmy Fowler recorded two goals and six assists.

“We felt like we had the momentum going into the third,” Winslow coach Bruce Lambrecht said. “They came out strong last time in the third quarter; it’s just we got too aggressive, picked up some silly penalties and that’s what killed us.”

Cony held a slight lead for the better part of the first half but goals from Houghton and Fowler in the final minute of the second quarter tied the game at 5-5 heading into intermission.

Tyler Sproul scored off an assist from his brother, Bret, 23 seconds into the second half to give the Rams the lead for good, but it was Lapierre who broke the game open in the third quarter.

Lapierre took a feed from classmate Joel Bennett just inside the box and ripped a shot into the back of the net with 9:36 remaining in the third to double the Rams’ advantage.

“When I threw it I thought it was going to go over the net, and then it hit completely as far right corner of the net as you can get,” said Lapierre, who struck again in similar fashion just 11 seconds later to make it 8-5.

Fowler answered with a goal for Winslow just six seconds later after winning the draw, but Lapierre scored another pair of unanswered goals to push Cony’s lead to 10-6. Winslow had a chance to keep it close heading into the fourth trailing 11-8 with less than 1 minute remaining in the third, but goals from Bickford with one- and two-man advantages with 35.4 and 18.2 seconds left in the quarter, respectively, put the Black Raiders away for good.

“We didn’t play up to our potential in the first half. We left some balls on the field, we didn’t complete passes, we weren’t moving without the ball — just not a game we’re used to playing,” Cony coach Chad Foye said. “Then in the second half, the third quarter was huge. We just kept working at it and plugging away.”

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter:@Evan_Crawley

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