SCARBOROUGH — Not much went right for Falmouth junior goalie Drew Noyes early in Thursday’s regular-season boys’ lacrosse finale at Scarborough.
But Noyes and his teammates saved their best for last and closed the season with a pivotal victory.
After giving up three early goals, the Navigators held the Red Storm scoreless for more than 33 minutes, and a late Noyes save preserved a 6-5 win.
“Before the game, I got turf in my eye and I had to go in the bathroom and pick it out,” said Noyes, who made 17 saves. “I heard their student section screaming at me. I was just mad and got the last laugh.”
Scarborough (8-4) raced to a quick 3-1 lead behind two goals from Finn Pedersen and another from Quinn Fogarty but couldn’t put the game away, as it was held scoreless the final 17 minutes of the first half.
A big reason for that was Noyes, who settled in and made 11 first-half saves, including three on Tae Delaware.
Falmouth (9-3) awakened on offense in the third quarter, snapping a 20-plus minute drought on a goal from Caden Barnard, then pulling even when Xavier Grenier beat Red Storm goalie Ben Kerbel (10 saves).
With 3:06 left in the quarter, Rory Skillin-Lanou put the Navigators ahead for the first time. Cole Allan added a goal to make it 5-3 heading to the fourth quarter.
Then, with 7:34 to play, the Red Storm finally scored for the first time since the first quarter when Pedersen got his third goal. But Zach Mitton scored for the second time for Falmouth to restore a two-goal advantage.
Off the ensuing faceoff, Sam Rumelhart set up Olin Pedersen to make it 6-5 with 6:33 to play. Scarborough didn’t score again, however.
Down the stretch, Finn Pedersen hit the crossbar, Delaware rang a shot off the post, Fogarty bounced a shot just high, and with 1:04 to play, Noyes made his final save, denying Jeremiah Park.
Falmouth then turned to Grenier to run out the clock. He drew two penalties in the process, allowing the Navigators to win their fifth straight contest.
“We’ve been down before in games and you get frustrated, but you have to keep your head up and keep going,” said Grenier. “We got the lead, then we had the momentum.”
“I’m just proud of the guys,” added Falmouth Coach Dave Barton. “It wasn’t pretty to start, but we weren’t going to back down. It’s a tough group.”
Scarborough had a chance to leapfrog South Portland for the No. 3 spot in Class A South, but will likely remain fourth for the playoffs.
“We have the capacity to create plenty of opportunities, but I don’t know what it is, the guys aren’t playing the way we practice,” said Red Storm Coach Zach Barrett. “I think the guys try to take on too much individually when the game gets tight. I’m hoping we step up and figure it out.”
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