LEWISTON — Lauren Landry sparked Lewiston in its game-deciding run in Friday’s girls lacrosse game against Mt. Blue.
Landry scored two of the Blue Devils’ final three goals in a 7-5 victory over the Cougars at Don Rioux Field.
“Everybody on varsity played; everybody contributed to the win,” Lewiston coach Tracey Blaisdell said. “We were always able to have fresh legs in there; it helps to have a team with a lot of depth. They were supportive of each other and so excited to see each other’s successes.”
Before Landry’s heroics, Mt. Blue (7-5) bounced back from a 4-2 halftime deficit with a strong start to the second half.
Lily Huntley’s free position shot in the first minute of the second half went wide, but Mt. Blue maintained control of the ball for the first five and a half minutes of the second half. The possession paid off when Emma Dunn found Alissa Butterfield cutting to the goal, and Butterfield notched her second of the game, decreasing Lewiston’s lead to 4-3.
Talia Kidder evened the game at 4-4 nearly eight minutes into the half with a goal set up by Huntley.
“We found our confidence and footing coming out of the half,” Mt. Blue coach Liz LeClair said. “I think they stepped up and they really wanted to win for their teammate Chloe (Roberts), who got hurt early on in the game.”
The Blue Devils (3-11) earned chances by running to flip the field. They took the lead when Landry attacked the net and fired the shot past Mt. Blue goalie Maddie Keller nearly 15 minutes into the second half.
Madeline Cote set the goal up before Landry made her run toward the cage.
“Lauren made me so happy,” Cote said. “She came out of nowhere, I had the ball and I passed to her, and she ran in — it was amazing.”
Dunn recorded her second assist of the half when she set up Merelin Zeliger, whose shot trickled past Lewiston goalie Kadynce Bisson to tie the game at 5-5.
The momentum changed in the final minutes when the officials forced Mt. Blue to play a player down the rest of the game, thinking the Cougars had four yellow cards, but in fact, Mt. Blue only had three yellows.
“We can’t turn back time; our girls fought as hard as they could playing a man down,” LeClair said. “I couldn’t have been prouder of them, I just wish we could turn back (time) and let them play full (strength).”
Landry reclaimed the lead for the Blue Devils with a free position tally 19 minutes in, then Julia Perkins took a long pass from Caitlin D’Andrea and finished for a 7-5 lead with under four minutes to play.
Perkins had just got on the field, replacing Cote.
“We pulled out Maddie Cote because we wanted to go with fresh legs, so Maddie had run off and Perkins had run in,” Blaisdell said. “The timing couldn’t have been better. She ran in and (D’Andrea) had her, nobody was there and it was so beautiful, an absolute picture-perfect goal.”
Both teams scored early in the game. First, Cote battled through traffic to give Lewiston a 1-0 advantage 2:30 into the opening half. Dayla Tripp had the assist.
“I cut around the crease from the right side and there was a girl there, so I was just trying to speed up around her,” Cote said. “The second girl was coming right then and there, but I shot it right before and it went in.”
The Cougars responded nearly 45 seconds later when Huntley shot the ball from close range to tie the game.
Cote notched her second goal of the first half four minutes in, with D’Andrea recording the helper, giving the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead.
The goalies took over in the middle of the first half. Mt. Blue’s Evangeline Hutchins stopped Emily Bingelis twice in a row, including one on a free position attempt, and Bisson saved three consecutive Mt. Blue shots.
D’Andrea scored her first of the game from free position, extending the Blue Devils’ lead to 3-1.
Butterfield’s shot from the top corner got Mt. Blue back within one goal. Maya Kellett had the assist.
“It’s nice to see some of those underclassmen step up and get those goals,” LeClair said of Huntley and Butterfield. “We worked the offense with a lot of movement and a lot of passing.”
Emily Trider set up D’Andrea’s second goal with three minutes remaining in the first half, and the Blue Devils took a 4-2 advantage into halftime.
“We were up by two at half and a team like that, they aren’t going to give up,” Lewiston’s Alyssa Marcoux said of Mt. Blue. “We knew we had to come out even stronger and even if we were down, we weren’t going to give up.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
