North Yarmouth Academy’s Bobby Murray kicked off a big win for his team over the visiting Lakers on Thursday, Oct. 8, scoring twice in the first five minutes. Six additional Panthers tacked on goals after that, and the squad cruised to a 9-0 victory.

“Our last game, we had a real strong game against Fryeburg,” said Lake Region head coach Mike Chaine. “We just came out flat today.”

NYA head coach Martyn Keen suspected in advance the game might be lopsided in his squad’s favor. “They’re having a real tough time this season,” said Keen of the Lakers. “They’ve had, I think, 73 goals against them this season before today.”

Keen aimed to keep the scoring respectful; instead of pursuing the goal of shorting out the board, he opted to deploy some greener athletes, giving them valuable on-field experience. “What was really nice was to get a lot of players playing time who don’t normally play,” he said.

Murray’s first goal came just over two minutes in; he scored his second less than three minutes later. Twenty seconds later, Xander Bartone added one, and 33 seconds after that, Thomas Pitts made it 4-0. Trevor Lachance closed out the first-half scoring around the 20-minute mark.

“Unfortunately, we’re struggling on our defensive end, got a whole new defense,” said Chaine. “We’ve got a goalie who hasn’t had a lot of experience. So, unfortunately, we fell apart a little bit on ourselves once their early goals happened.”

In the second half, then, the Panthers hashed four more: Ryan Baker scored on a rolling tap across left with 33:50 to play; Xander Kostelnik made it 7-0 on a blast from the top-right corner of the Lake Region goal area at 24:12; Noah Dennis placed a pretty notch from outside the top-left corner of the Lake Region 18 at 22:33; and Bartone closed the day with his second, the 9-0 tally, at 1:34, wheeling through multiple defenders to get in close.

“The starters have had a habit of missing a lot of chances this season,” said Keen. “We lost two games earlier in the season because we didn’t put teams away. So while it may have looked a little callous, I asked them to go out there and get the game won as quickly as possible.”

Lake Region drops to 0-11 on the season; the team is currently 16th in B South, just ahead of Spruce Mountain (0-11) and just back from Oak Hill (0-10-1). The Lakers are obviously struggling; Chaine sees reasons for that, as well as some cause to be optimistic about the future.

“We’ve got to work on our intensity, keep our intensity up,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work still to do, but we’re getting there. We’ve had games where we’ve been able to control the ball well. We’re learning, got a younger team. It’ll be filling in, in a couple years.”

The Lakers did spark now and again. Matt Stenger, in goal for the late stretch, made a beautiful diving save on a hard shot in close with roughly 11:52 to play, for instance. Even voices from the NYA sideline shouted praise for that play.

The team, however, couldn’t heap together enough sparks to start a fire. They’ll get another chance on Tuesday the 13th, when they host fourth-place Greely (6-3-2).

NYA, meanwhile, leapt to 7-3. The Panthers traveled to Waynflete (third in C South at 8-2) on Saturday the 10th, succumbing in the rivalry matchup and dropping to 7-4. The team, which ventures to Richmond (second in D South at 8-2) on Tuesday, is fifth in C South at present.

Laker Alex Langadas takes a touch on the ball as an North Yarmouth Academy opponent swoops in to interrupt.Lake Region’s Mason Laplante and NYA’s Xander Kostelnik clash over a ball in the Panthers’ 9-0 win over the Lakers on Thursday. Kostelnik scored NYA’s seventh goal of the nine.Ryan Baker gets a shot away for NYA despite close coverage by Lake Region’s Cutter Meeker.NYA middie Andrew Keith gets after the ball in midair while Lake Region’s Mason Laplante reacts.Panther Jackson Linscott gets a header over a Lake Region opponent on Thursday afternoon.NYA’s Xander Bartone added two for the Panthers in a 9-0 win over visiting Lake Region on Thursday.

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