WALES — Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon/St. Dom’s needed the 10-day break between its final regular-season game and Saturday’s Class C quarterfinal against Maranacook/Winthrop.
The time off allowed the fourth-seeded Raiders to regroup following their loss to Lewiston in the season finale, and they had a strong first half led them to a 15-4 victory over the fifth-seeded Hawks on Saturday.
Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon/St. Dom’s will face No. 1 Waynflete in the Class C semifinals on Wednesday.
Gage Spier, who tallied three goals and five assists, said the team bonded during the break.
“In the beginning of the season and towards the end of the season, we always blamed each other and would get mad at each other for stupid reasons,” Spier said. “We talked about it; we had events going on in the locker room, jamming to music before practices, and we’d do games out here (on the field) with coaches. It brought us together, and that’s what we needed.”
Kaiden Delano, who had four goals to lead Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon/St. Dom’s (9-6), said the Raiders had a different attitude for the playoff game.
“Something just clicked. We all had our heads up, and everybody was working for each other instead of ourselves,” Delano said.
Spier started the offensive onslaught with the Raiders’ first two goals of the game. Adam Hinkley stretched the lead to 3-0 by beating Hawks (8-7) goalie Lucas Woodruff (nine saves) just past the 10-minute mark.
“The goalie is pretty good,” Spier said. “He made a lot of saves today, and he made a lot of saves last game, too. I just read the defense as much as I could. And I went to his weak spots, which were the corners and the ground.”
Kaiden Delano (3) of Oak Hill/Monmouth/Lisbon/St. Dom’s reacts after scoring a goal during Saturday’s game in Wales against Maranacook/Winthrop/Spruce Mountain. Delano’s goal put the Raiders up 5-0. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Oak Hill defeated Maranacook/Winthrop 12-6 during the regular season.
Lukas Bergeron had a hand in the next two Oak Hill goals, scoring with about 4 minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the opening quarter and assisting on Delano’s first goal, which stretched the lead to 5-0.
Delano said that making the right plays led to goals.
“Everybody kept their heads up and looked around to see if there was an open man before taking a selfish shot themselves,” Delano said.
Liam Holland finished the first quarter with a goal and opened the second-quarter scoring with another goal, pushing the lead to 7-0.
Spier set up RJ Mackenzie’s goal then scored his third for a hat trick with 10:26 remaining in the second.
Delano continued Oak Hill’s run with his second goal of the half, making it 10-0.
Maranacook/Winthrop’s Ethan Chilton stopped Oak Hill’s scoring spree when he beat Raiders’ goalie Nic Michaud (13 saves) for the Hawks’ first goal with less than five minutes remaining.
“Ethan is a freshman; he had half of our goals,” Hawks coach Jake Linkletter said. “We have a lot of first-year players and we are losing four seniors this year, so I am really excited for the future.”
Nathan Dillman and Delano capped the second quarter scoring, giving the Raiders a 12-1 lead.
“The first two quarters were great,” Raiders coach Joey Hinkley said. “We really played Oak Hill lacrosse — that we like to see.”
Parker Douin scored for the Hawks with 8 minutes and 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter. He added another goal seven minutes later to cut the deficit to 12-3.
Linkletter said the Hawks changed their defensive scheme in the second half, which helped keep the Raiders scoreless in the third quarter.
“We did put a zone defense in the second half, which I think really helped in the third quarter to solve them,” Linkletter said.
Hinkley said the Raiders didn’t come out with the same energy in the second half as they did in the first.
“We were complacent in the third quarter, but they knew they had to finish strong,” Joey Hinkley said. “They came through in the fourth quarter and picked it up.”
Holland and Delano scored to stop the Hawks’ run early in the fourth quarter and give the Oak Hill co-op a 14-3 lead.
Chilton scored his second of the game for Maranacook/Winthrop.
Bergeron added his second tally midway through the final quarter, extending the Raiders’ lead to 15-4.
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