WATERVILLE — In the end, the Lewiston girls lacrosse team ran into the same thing the rest of Class A North ran into this season.
Too much Messalonskee.
The Eagles outlasted a gritty Blue Devils squad Wednesday night at Thomas College’s Smith Field, using four goals from junior Lydia Dexter to win their second straight regional title with a 9-4 victory.
Top-seeded Messalonskee (15-1) will meet the A South champ Massabesic (14-1) in the state championship game Saturday.
“We knew that if we played strong, stayed calm and played our game, it would hopefully be enough to beat them,” Dexter said. “It’s a battle every time we play them.”
That was certainly the case in this one, with Lewiston (10-6) controlling the game in the early minutes. The Blue Devils were patient in their set offense and scrappy on defense, holding Messalonskee to just a single goal from Ally Turner in the first 10 and a half minutes of the first half.
Dexter scored her first to make it 2-0 at the 10:52 mark, though, and Nathalie St. Pierre (two goals) added to the lead with a free play off a foul call at the midway point of the half.
Lewiston got one back from Christine Chasse just over a minute later, but St. Pierre — off a beautiful feed from India Languet — and Lauren Pickett answered to send the Eagles into halftime with a 5-1 lead.
Both late goals were a result of long, patient possessions from Messalonskee.
“We knew they were a strong team defensively, so I really emphasized that a lot with the girls,” Messalonskee coach Ashley Pullen said. “We had to be patient and wait for a good opportunity, not try and force things and we did that. We executed the game plan.”
Dexter and Turner (two goals, one assist) scored early in the second half to build a comfortable cushion.
Olivia Bergeron cut into the lead with a beautiful right-side drive to make it 7-2 with just over 15 minutes to play, but just as they’d done all night, the Eagles controlled the ensuing draw and responded with another goal from Dexter.
Overall, Messalonskee took 10 out of 15 draw controls to aid their possession game.
“Everyone wants the gold. Everyone came out to play their best and play their hardest,” Languet said. “In practice the past couple of days, we’ve just been working on plays and passing it around. Tonight, it really showed.”
Lewiston tried to fight back with late tallies from Morgan Eliason and Kristina Blais, but Dexter finished off her second-half hat trick with less than three minutes remaining to seal the 9-4 win.
Sydni Collier was called on to make just two saves in goal, but an active stick from the senior netminder intercepted a number of would-be crosses from Blue Devil attackers.
“It definitely wasn’t an easy win. It was a well-earned win. It feels good,” Dexter said.
While the game was slow to open up for Dexter and Turner — who broke the schools’ single-season scoring record with more than 50 goals during the regular season — players like Languet, St. Pierre and Pickett stepped up to help Messalonskee break down the Blue Devils.
“That’s so key. We have so many threats,” Pullen said. “If you want to shut down our top two scorers, that’s OK. We have three more we can pull out of our hat.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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