KENTS HILL — After eight ties and nine lead changes, the Cony High School boys lacrosse team still found a way to remain undefeated Tuesday afternoon.
Cody Lamarre scored off a feed from Bret Sproul with 3:30 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Rams (9-0) held on from there for a 12-11 win over Maranacook/Winthrop (6-2) in a meeting between two of the top teams in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B.
“(The game) was very competitive and it was a lot of fun,” Sproul said. “It was one of those games that you remember.”
The game-winning tally developed quickly. Sproul took a feed just past midfield and raced forward with a group of Hawks trailing just behind. As he approached the goal he stopped, waited for a few moments and found Lamarre trailing in for the score.
“I drew two men and he was in the perfect place,” Sproul said. “It was just a great finish by him. That was just a great play.”
Cony maintained possession for most of the final few minutes, but the Hawks did manage to muster a late charge after Levi Emery forced a turnover deep in Hawks territory with 43 seconds remaining. Kyle Morand got a shot off with 18 seconds remaining from about 25 yards out, but Rams goalkeeper Cam Gallant was there for the last of his 20 saves.
Sproul paced the Rams with four goals and three assists, Joel Bennett had a hat trick and Chad Bickford notched two goals and two assists. Ty Smith had a game-high five goals for Maranacook/Winthrop, Kyle Morand poured in three scores and goalkeeper Isaiah Weston fought through hamstring issues on his way to 14 saves and an assist.
“(The game) was really fun to be a part of,” Hawks coach Zach Stewart said. “I really would have liked to be on the winning side of it, but I appreciate Cony’s hustle all the way through and the same with our hearts.”
After trading leads through the first quarter and a half, Bennett scored three of the half’s final four goals to give the Rams a 7-4 lead — the largest advantage either team enjoyed all afternoon. The Hawks responded, though, as Morand scored three straight to open the third quarter and tie the game up.
“(Morand) is a senior. He’s a big, physical dude so that’s the type of things that physical seniors do,” Stewart said. “They bring your team up and aside from that it brought him up, too. You don’t see Kyle running at a 10. He’s always at a five, you know, he’s a super-chill guy so it was really nice to see him bring it to that next level.”
From there, neither team led by more than a goal. Maranacook/Winthrop was up 11-10 with 5:36 to play following a lefty finish from Zach Lacasse, but Sproul scored 50 seconds later to tie the contest and set up his game-winning assist to Lamarre.
“These guys just worked hard and battled the whole time,” Cony coach Chad Foye said. “They’ve worked hard all year and battled all year, and no one has really backed us into a wall like this. It was good to see that we could come back late in a game.”
The Rams — who missed the postseason last spring in Class A North — will have a good shot at running the table in the regular season, as their three remaining games come against Erskine (1-8), Lawrence (5-3) and Oak Hill (0-7).
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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