Windham got the start it wanted. Cheverus got its finish.

The fourth-seeded Stags rallied twice in the first half Wednesday and surged to a 15-7 win over No. 5 Windham in an Eastern Class A quarterfinal Wednesday at Boulos Stadium.

Windham’s Alec Emerson drives with the ball as Tom Lawson of Cheverus, left, and Fritz Gemmer move in during Wednesday’s Eastern Class A quarterfinal. Cheverus won, 15-7. Photos by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Cheverus (8-5) won its sixth straight to advance to a regional semifinal against top-seed Brunswick on Saturday. The start time is yet to be determined. The Dragons advanced Tuesday night with a 21-4 win over No. 8 Mt. Ararat.

The Stags and Dragons met in the regional final in 2014, with Brunswick advancing to the state title game with a 9-8 win.

“That’s a great rivalry and that’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Tom Lawson, who led the Stags with four goals and two assists. “We’re going to practice really hard and play our game.”

Nick Schleh had three goals for the Stags. James Kane and Jesse Pierce had two each. Max Coffin and Alex Nason scored one each.

Griffin Jacobson led the Eagles with three goals. Bryce Rolfe, Zach Callahan, Ross Batcheldor and Brian Kelley also scored for Windham (8-5), which was making its first trip to the Eastern A tournament.

The Eagles took a 2-0 lead 1:14 into the game when they twice won the draw, and Jacobson and Rolfe (goal, two assists) finished off fast breaks.

“We did get the start we wanted, we just didn’t get the finish,” Windham Coach Pete Small said. “They did what we thought they would do and we handled it for a while. Our execution just wasn’t what we hoped it would be. They’re an excellent team and they executed.”

Cheverus tied the game on goals by Michael Hatch (7:30) and Lawson (6:10). The Eagles regained the lead, 3-2, with 2:29 left when Batcheldor finished a pass from Zach Hough (2 assists).

Cheverus then outscored Windham 7-1 in the second quarter for a 9-4 lead at the half.

“It took us a while to get settled in,” said Schleh, who scored twice in the second quarter. “They’re a strong team and they played great throughout. We just started to really click as a team.”

Keegan Thomas, Zordan Holman and Kiernan Conley led the Stags’ zone defense, riding out shooters and forcing mistakes.

“We were a little jumpy in the first quarter,” said Thomas, who gathered four ground balls, had two interceptions and repeatedly hammered cutters. “We just had to be patient. Let them work the ball around, don’t fall for their trickery. And take advantage of their mistakes.”

Sean Walsh made 14 saves for the Stags, including four big ones in the second quarter.

“Sean definitely bailed us out,” Thomas said. “It could have been 9-9 but he kept it at 9-4.”

Cheverus Coach Bill Bodwell pointed to the early play of Windham goalie Jacob Dionne (18 saves), who “made some really big saves in the first quarter. We got the feeling that eventually the shots were going to go in.”

And that early 2-0 deficit?

“We do have a good veteran group, they really like lacrosse and work hard at it,” he said. “They never lost faith.”

The Stags came out of halftime with four straight goals in the third, building a 13-4 lead before Jacobson got one back with 10 seconds left to make it 13-5 after three quarters. The teams each scored twice in the fourth.

Small was upbeat about the Eagles’ progress this season, improving from 4-8 in 2014.

“And those four wins, we barely won,” he said. “This year things started clicking. (Nine) of our starters are juniors so we have a lot coming back. They’re already asking what they can do to improve.”

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