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FALMOUTH — Peter Kearns knows he and his Falmouth boys lacrosse teammates should celebrate their 11-3 victory Tuesday over Thornton Academy. Any time you beat an outstanding opponent, you should acknowledge the hard work that went into it with a little revelry.

That said, Kearns knows the win is only a step, nothing more. The lesson learned last spring is still fresh. That wound hasn’t healed.

“Just never let up, you know. Keep after it. Don’t let one win make you get too cocky. Stay out of your own head. Stay to your basics,” said Kearns, the Navigators’ faceoff specialist. “We have to do a whole new scout the second time we play them. I think that’s something we didn’t do last year. It’s something we need to do a lot better this year.”

Last spring, Falmouth rolled through every opponent until the state final. After beating Thornton twice in the regular season by at least a dozen goals, the Trojans executed a perfect game plan and took the Class A title with an 8-6 win.

Both teams entered Tuesday’s game undefeated. Thornton now goes into the playoffs at 13-1 as the No. 2 seed. Falmouth can complete an undefeated regular season with a win at Kennebunk on Thursday afternoon but will be the top seed regardless.

Falmouth coach Dave Barton said his team should enjoy this win but come to practice Wednesday with it firmly in the rearview mirror.

“We’ve got work to do. We’ll crank the tunes in (the locker room) and we’ll have fun. These guys have earned that much,” Barton said. “As soon as tomorrow comes, it’s recover and (get ready for) Kennebunk. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. There’s a whole another level we can get to.”

Barton’s team never trailed Tuesday and actually held the Trojans scoreless throughout the first half. Falmouth led 4-0 after one quarter, with Will Davis and Chase Bruder each scoring a pair of goals. Thornton clanged the post three times in the first quarter, but to be fair, the Navigators hit the post twice in the first minute of the second quarter. The goalie’s best friend doesn’t choose sides.

“They clearly have had a chip on their shoulder since June 21 of last year. They’ve marked this date on their calendar,” Thornton coach Ryan Hersey said, referencing the date of last season’s state final. “They outworked us tonight, and we’ve got to take the humble pie and get back to work tomorrow.”

That’s what both teams took from Tuesday’s game. There’s a lot of work yet to do.

“I think we won tonight on grit, effort and determination. We were tough today,” Barton said. “But we’re not perfect. That’s what we’re after. And it will never happen, but we’re still after that perfect game.”

There’s no guarantee a state final rematch is coming. While Falmouth and Thornton have been the obvious top two teams in Class A all season, Yarmouth, Deering and Scarborough are talented, too. Overlooking any opponent could be disaster.

“(Class) A is deep this year, and it’s awesome. It’s really good for the state. We’ve got to earn the right to see them again,” Barton said.

Hersey basically said the same thing. As the No. 2 seed, Thornton’s path to championship Saturday gets harder. He noted that each time the Trojans have won a state title, it came by taking a tough path. If it gets to the final again, Thornton will be that much better prepared for a rematch.

And if that happens, you can expect Thornton’s game plan to look much different. That’s how things went last season, when Hersey installed a game plan in the final that was predicated on winning faceoffs and controlling possession, everything Falmouth did right Tuesday. You know Hersey didn’t want to tip his hand on a regular season Tuesday, and you know Barton didn’t either.

“Knowing that there’s the potential there, obviously we’re not going to do a lot of things tonight that we would want to keep for that game,” Hersey said. “Just like last year, it will look vastly different on both ends.”

They have to get there first.