WATERVILLE—It was almost a perfect day for Messalonskee High School athletics Saturday on the campus of Thomas College. Almost.

After the Eagle baseball and girls lacrosse teams scored Eastern Class A semifinal victories earlier in the day, the Messalonskee boys lacrosse team could not follow suit as it dropped an 8-5 decision to Cheverus.

“I give (Messalonskee) a lot of credit, they worked real hard and they matched everything that we did,” Cheverus coach Bill Bodwell said. “It was a dog fight.”

The Stags never trailed in the contest, however, they could not create serious breathing room between themselves and the Eagles either.

“We had a good group of guys and we knew that we could do it,” Messalonskee senior Ben Weeks said. “We knew we had the potential to do it but we couldn’t get it done. Not today at least.”

Cheverus took a 5-2 lead into halftime on the heels of three goals from Nick Schleh and two from Tom Lawson, but the Eagles quickly got back in the thick of things in the third quarter.

Ryan Erskine scored 2 minutes, 39 seconds into the quarter and less than one minute later Weeks — who had both of Messalonskee’s goals in the opening half — found the back of the net to make it 5-4.

Erskine — who has spent nearly his entire career at midfield — was moved up to attack in the second half and early on, it paid off.

“That helped settle things down a bit,” Messalonskee coach Tom Sheridan said. “Ryan Erskine brings more experience up there.”

The Eagles continued to press over the next four minutes but couldn’t break through, and it would ultimately cost them.

“That next goal was big,” Weeks said. “We knew the next goal was going to be the biggest goal of the game.”

The Stags’ Jack Sutton scored that next goal with a man advantage with 4:20 remaining in the quarter and just 14 seconds later Patrick O’Hanlon pushed Cheverus’ lead back to three with a goal.

“Those are my happy moments,” Bodwell said. “Lacrosse is certainly a game of runs and you can kind of get discouraged when they’re going against you and get overly excited when they’re going for you.”

Messalonskee cut it to 7-5 with 9:33 remaining in the fourth when Connor Leonard set Dan Condon up for a goal, but the Eagles could not draw any closer. Sutton put the game away for the Stags with his score with 2:16 to play.

“It honestly felt great,” Sutton said. “Three goals in lacrosse that’s not much. There was still about a minute left and anything can happen. Teams have come back from bigger leads than that.”

Unfortunately for the Eagles, however, a last-second comeback was not in the cards.

James Biegel had a strong game in net for the Stags, stopping eight shots — a number of them in key spots — and also got some help from the posts behind him on a few occasions. Jake Smith had 12 saves for Messalonskee.

“He’s a good goalie. He’s played well for us all year,” Bodwell said. “He takes pride in his goaltending. He’s quick.

“I thought their goalie played well and I thought my goalie played well. Two good goalies today.”

Cheverus will now face Brunswick — where Bodwell spent four years coaching prior to Cheverus — In the Eastern Class A finals Wednesday.

Evan Crawley—621-5640

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Twitter: Evan_Crawley