CUMBERLAND – The differences between the Greely and Brunswick high school boys’ lacrosse teams on Saturday were small. On several occasions, a goal by the Rangers was immediately answered by the visiting Dragons, and vice-versa as the momentum shifted back and forth. 

But two areas the Rangers dominated were in faceoffs, along with, as Brunswick coach Don Glover said, ground balls in Greely’s 11-8 Class B victory.

Saturday’s contest was a rematch of last season’s State Class B championship in Portland, won by Brunswick in overtime, 14-13. 

This time around, it was the Rangers, playing just their second game on their home field due to the spring weather, that rode second-half momentum to the win. 

Senior Greely captain faceoff specialist Jackson Williams was a beast as the Rangers controlled possession thanks to a huge 19-3 edge in faceoffs. This allowed Greely (6-2) to hold the ball for long stretches of time, keeping Brunswick from producing a sustained offensive presence. 

“We’ve been really working on the faceoff piece a bunch and just trying to be creative,” said Glover, whose 6-1 Dragons host Messalonskee on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. “Today, Greely dominated there, though we were able to counter them a bit.”

For Williams, it was the memory of last year’s state final loss that drove him. 

“Coach (Mike Storey) just reiterated the feeling that we had last year. This is a little of redemption for us,” Williams said. “This is huge, something we were thinking about since last year.”

The opening quarter was slow going as the teams felt each other out. Greely broke on top

when Ethan Fraser slipped a shot past Brunswick goaltender Connor Pendergast for a 1-0 Ranger lead. 

Brunswick answered with two minutes left in the quarter as Tyler Nadeau rifled a low shot past Greely keeper Sawyer Gagnon, who made three tough saves to keep the Dragons at bay. 

The second quarter was the complete opposite of the first, as both teams turned up the offensive pressure. Greely struck for a pair of goals from William Schumacher and Williams for a 3-1 lead, but Brunswick rattled off three straight goals in response for a 4-3 advantage. Nolan Lyne, Nate Girardin and Aiden Glover had the Dragons rolling and with all the momentum with 7:41 left until halftime. 

However, Greely responded. Gagnon made one of his nine spectacular saves and the Rangers countered, with Andrew Lawrence finishing a pass from Williams to knot the game. 

“Their keeper came up stellar at times,” said Coach Glover of Gagnon. 

The squads traded goals later in the half — Girardin for Brunswick and Elias Leggat-Barr for Greely — for a 5-5 tie at the break. 

Greely began the second half the way it played the first, with Williams winning the opening faceoff. This time, the Rangers scored quickly with Lawrence giving his team a 6-5 lead.

“I think faceoffs are huge,” said Williams. “In middle school I played attack and had a game where I never touched the ball. It is important to the game, and I feel that I have an influence.”

Brunswick kept the chess match going, with Jacob Belanger putting home a goal from Jack McDiarmid. 

This time the Rangers responded with a run, as Schuyler Wetmore and Fraser scored 1:34 apart for an 8-6 Greely edge. Don Glover felt that the Rangers were winning the little battles. 

“(Greely) came out of the scrums with most of the loose balls today,” said the Brunswick coach, who saw his team draw to 8-7 on a Lyne tally with 22 seconds remaining in the third quarter. 

Greely put together a three-goal run in the fourth, with Lawrence, Williams and Wetmore picking up a goal each to put the Dragons away. 

McDiarmid scored his second for Brunswick with 2:07 left to account for the final score. 

After the game, Lyne spoke about ramifications of this regular-season contest.   

“This was a huge battle,” said Lyne, who finished with two goals for Brunswick.

“We are not worried about this loss. We have a lot of season left and this team is getting better and better every day. We ran some things that we had never run before, but I feel it made us better. We might not go undefeated, but we can still run the table and win a state title.”

“We hadn’t been that consistent recently. We were embarrassed by the loss to Cape Elizabeth last week (9-7), so today it was good,” Williams said. 

For Don Glover, this game was a shining moment for Maine high school lacrosse.   

“Those who love and who know the sport realize this was a chess game. It was a great game for the state of Maine,” Don Glover said. “We told them ‘you were part of a very impressive game. We worked as hard as we could.’ We’ve only had two occasions in our seven state championships where we went undefeated, and I am perfectly fine with a loss at this point. I don’t like going undefeated because these are the moments where you can get the guys to reflect and come to work on Monday ready to work.”

Aiden Glover led Brunswick with one goal and three assists, with McDiarmid adding a goal and two helpers. Nate Girardin led the Dragons with four ground balls and chipped in a pair of goals. 

Greely held a 26-17 advantage in shots on goal, with both teams scoring two man-up goals. Pendergast turned away 14 shots in the Brunswick cage. 

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