PORTLAND – With a few tweaks to the offense, a new goalie and some growing confidence, South Portland finds itself undefeated a week into the high school boys’ lacrosse season.
The Red Riots knocked off Cheverus 8-3 at Boulos Stadium on Wednesday for their second straight victory.
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Travis Wibby made 16 saves, and the Red Riots got two goals apiece from three players: Harrison Keithly, Chad Macleod and Garrett Reuscher. Adam Burpee and Michael Salvatore also scored.
“Confidence-wise, this has given us a boost,” said Keithly. “But we’re not riding on it. We were already thinking about (next opponent) Deering 10 minutes after the game.”
South Portland has reached the Western Class A semifinals for the last several years, but is striving to go deeper this year.
“We’re a work in progress,” said Coach Tom Fiorini. “We’ve slowed down the offense and the kids are still getting used to it. We’re really just trying to fine-tune things.”
Keithly got the first goal on a wraparound at 6:37 of the first quarter, and Reuscher scored his first off a feed from Alex Catrett at 8:57 of the second.
Keithly made it 3-0 with a second wraparound, this one an underhand shot off a rebound with a little more than two minutes to go in the half.
The Red Riots went up 5-0 in the third quarter on goals by Burpee and Reuscher at 11:14 and 7:50, before Peter Dyche of Cheverus beat Wibby to break the shutout with 3:01 to go in the third quarter.
Macleod scored his first with an over-the-top shot at 2:45 to make it 6-1, and South Portland made it 8-1 with 8:29 to go in the game when Salvatore and Macleod scored three minutes apart.
Cheverus scored twice more to make it 8-3 on goals by Tommy Sullivan and Garrett Naimie.
“We had some good long possessions,” said Cheverus Coach Deke Andrew. “But not a lot of motion. We just played poorly. There’s no excuses.”
Wibby, a senior, said he was seeing the ball well.
“I thought he was excellent,” said Andrew.
“I’ve been trying to prove myself since I was a freshman,” said Wibby, in his first year as starter.
“I guess I had a good game. But the defense did an excellent job. And this year we have more team chemistry. The whole team is unified.”
Staff Writer Jenn Menendez can be contacted at 791-6426 or at:
jmenendez@pressherald.com
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