CAPE ELIZABETH — One thunderous hit and two lightning strikes in the opening four minutes sent Cape Elizabeth on its way to victory. And then the Capers got comfortable.
Griffin Thoreck and Ben Shea each scored four goals Friday to lead Cape Elizabeth to a 15-1 victory over Waynflete in a Western Maine Conference boys’ lacrosse opener at Hannaford Field.
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Things looked grim for the Flyers just 44 seconds into the game when a hard hit in front of the Cape goal sent their star attackman, Harry Baker-Connick, to the sideline, taking with him much of the Flyers’ experience on the attack.
Thoreck then struck twice in 2:21, finishing off set pieces to give the defending Class B champion Capers a 2-0 lead.
Ben Shea scored the Capers’ next three goals, then attackman-turned-defender Tom Feenstra scored the first of two goals off long runs to put Cape ahead 6-0 at halftime.
“It was a lot more sloppy than we anticipated,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Ben Raymond said. “We did a little better on groundballs and transition in the second half. We did a good job of running through the majority of the things we were trying to do. I would have liked to see us score a few more times on open looks, but it’s early.”
“We definitely wanted to get off to a good start,” said Griffin Thoreck, who played alongside his freshman twin brothers, Owen (goal, assist) and Connor. “We want to keep building in each game, look forward to the next one.”
Cape Elizabeth goalie Alex Navarez made seven saves, including a pair of stingers from Will Lewis.
Waynflete goalie Graham Ratner made eight saves in a busy afternoon, as Cape put the Flyers’ defense under steady pressure.
The Capers got second-half goals from Griffin Thoreck (2), Riley Pillsbury (2), Owen Thoreck, R.J. Sarka, Noah Haversat, Feenstra and Shea.
“We were a little concerned about all the experience we lost on attack and defense,” Shea said, “but we knew we had a strong senior core to fill those holes.
“With kids like (Feenstra), Trevor Gale and Caelen Houle in the back, and Andrew Kelly moving up to attack from midfield and Owen behind their goal and pushing the sides, we’re moving the ball and scoring.”
The Flyers broke through with 3:23 left in the third quarter, when Lewis finished a feed from Timmy Bollinger to make it 10-1.
“(Baker-Connick’s injury) was a big factor in the game. He took a pretty good ding and was done for the game after that,” Waynflete Coach Dan Thomsen said. “We had to change some things up.
“We have a lot to learn. Hopefully we learned from today and can move on from here.”
Raymond brushed off talk of defending the state title.
“This is really a different group of kids; we have a lot of young kids who weren’t really with us last year,” he said.
“We’re working on instilling that work ethic and what’s expected every single day. The focus is this year; what are we going to do?”
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