WATERVILLE — After watching the Messalonskee High School girls lacrosse team coast to a victory earlier in the afternoon at Thomas College’s Smith Field, the boys team made sure it would not be outdone when it was its time to take the field.

Connor Smith scored seven goals as the second-seeded Eagles blitzed No. 7 Edward Little 15-5 Wednesday evening in a Class A North quarterfinal that was never in doubt for Messalonskee (10-3). The Eagles will next face No. 6 Windham (9-4) on Saturday in a regional semifinal. Windham edged No. 3 Lewiston 9-8 in double overtime Wednesday.

Messalonskee attacker Connor Smith scores on Edward Little goalie Brandon Asselin during a Class A North quarterfinal at Thomas College in Waterville on Wednesday. Photo by Jeff Pouland

Messalonskee High School's Dylan Jones reaches up to intercept a pass from Edward Little goalie Brandon Asselin before whipping a pass to Connor Smith for a score in the first half of Class A North quarterfinal playoff game at Thomas College in Waterville on Wednesday. Photo by Jeff Pouland

“We’re just spacing and moving off-ball right now,” Messalonskee coach Tom Sheridan said. “We have a lot of kids that have played together for a couple years, they’ve been up since sophomore year so I think it’s just coming forward right now.

“We have a couple different offensive formations and we just kind of keep trying different ones to see what works. We’re trying to find weaknesses in the defense and exploit them.”

Dylan Jones added three goals and two assists in the win, Alden Balboni had two goals and an assist and Will Weeks scored twice. Spencer Frahn had three goals to pace Edward Little (7-6).

The outcome of Wednesday’s game was a stark contrast to when the teams met during the regular season, a 10-7 win for the Eagles on May 17 at Bates College.

“We struggled to get going early on in the season but as we kept going and the later on in the season it got, we kept getting better,” Jones said. “We just tightened up some things that we needed to work on in preseason, stuff that didn’t carry over from last year when we went out in Eastern Maines. We’ve been taking steps as we go to build up and become a more well-rounded team.”

After some back-and-forth play in the opening minutes Wednesday, the Eagles took control as Smith started off the scoring 3:45 into the contest off an assist from Jones. Smith went on to score four goals in the opening quarter as Messalonskee opened up a 7-0 advantage.

“We just split the defense apart and moved the ball quickly like we should have last time (against Edward Little),” Smith said. “…We just came out with a fire because last time it was 10-7 when we played them and we knew it was do or die in the first round of the playoffs.”

That lead ultimately ballooned to 11-0 by halftime thanks to a pair of scores from Jones and one each from Balboni and Smith in the second quarter. Eli McBride finally got Edward Little on the scoreboard 2:22 into the third quarter but the Red Eddies never cut the deficit to single digits.

The Eagles, who have won eight consecutive games, will enter the next round of the postseason playing some of their best lacrosse of the season, with their last loss an 18-11 decision at Brunswick on May 6.

“It’s a testament to how hard we’ve worked. It’s a testament to everybody’s dedication on the off days and putting in the extra time outside of practice,” Jones said. “It’s coming together and results like this prove to us that it’s working.”

Sheridan agreed that his team is playing as well as it has all season, yet he is hoping to make sure that Wednesday’s drubbing of Edward Little was not Messalonskee’s apex.

“That’s why we have to make sure we don’t get too high or too low right now,” Sheridan said. “Hopefully, with the amount of seniors we have, we’re going to continue on and keep playing hard.”

Evan Crawley — 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley

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