Boys lacrosse
Lewiston 2
Scarborough 14
The scouting report on Lewiston was not all that in-depth. But the Scarborough boys lacrosse team was prepared for Saturday’s Class A state championship game nonetheless.
The Red Storm knew about Lewiston’s go-to guy, senior Jon Fournier – it’s tough to overlook an attackman who had eight points (four goals, four assists) in the Eastern finals. Other than that, though, there wasn’t much to go on.
So Scarborough relied on the experience and sharpened edge it had gained while playing a tough regular-season schedule and then knocking off both South Portland and Portland in the Western playoffs.
The result was a 14-2 win over the Blue Devils at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium. It was the second state championship win of the day for a Scarborough lacrosse team; the girls beat Brunswick in overtime, 13-12.
“I mean, the two (Western Class A) playoff games we had, those teams really pushed us to the limit,” said Farrington, speaking of the semifinal win over South Portland the finals against Portland. “So we knew we couldn’t take anything for granted today. The guys knew that and we chipped away. The lead got to be a little bit more and the guys stayed focused, which was great to see. And we had no letdown on defense, which was tremendous today.”
The Red Storm lost its final regular-season game to Class B finalist Kennebunk while playing with an injury-plagued lineup. Thanks to a bye, though, Scarborough had time to heal. Eleven days later, the No. 1-seeded Red Storm was rested and ready to begin its run.
First, it beat South Portland, 13-7. Next came the big test against No. 2 Portland. Scarborough went up 8-4 six minutes into the fourth quarter and, thanks to the play of junior goalie Phil Lambert – who made 19 saves in the game, including a series of four straight with 1:30 to go – held on to win, 8-7.
“It really fell upon our defense and Phil to come up with just an amazing effort against an offensive powerhouse,” said Farrington after the Portland game.
Without much knowledge of the team from the East – Lewiston and Scarborough didn’t even have any common opponents during the regular season – Farrington didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
A team effort would be required, and a team effort was what he got.
“Anybody we put out there today just played up a level. That’s kind of what you got in this game,” said Farrington. “You don’t really have to pump guys up in this kind of game. They brought their ‘A’ game today, and it was nice to see.”
Attackmen Bryan Macphie and Andy Clark may have led the offense by combining for nine goals, but junior defender Cody Powers drew the assignment of covering Fournier, and he held him to just one assist.
The Red Storm were in control from the start, scoring four times in the first 7:29 to lay the ground for what would become an insurmountable lead. Steve Doane set up Macphie 2:10 in to put Scarborough up, 1-0.
Senior midfielder Eric Payne scored the next two, before Powers bounced a long shot past Lewiston goalie Nate Rivet to make it 5-0.
“We knew we had to work hard today,” said Macphie. “We didn’t really know much about Lewiston. We knew they had one good kid, No. 14, Fournier, but we just really worked hard on what we’ve been doing all year and it worked.”
The Blue Devils made it 4-1 just before the end of the first quarter, but that didn’t slow down the Scarborough offense. Clark and Macphie each had a goal in the first 3:20 of the second to run the score to 6-1. Clark added another before halftime to make it 7-1.
“It’s one of those things where a good offense comes from the best defense,” said Farrington. “We just had the ball a lot. Once we started really rolling, and the guys loosened up, it started to flow.”
The offensive flow continued through the second half. Lewiston’s Travis LeBrun scored 3:24 into the fourth quarter, but aside from that it was all Scarborough all the time. Clark had three more goals, Macphie added one and freshman Jake Barrett had another.
Said Macphie: “It’s the best feeling the world as a senior to win a state championship.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
