BRUNSWICK

Monday’s “Battle of the Bridge” rematch at Bowdoin College was much more competitive than the first meeting — and much wetter.

After falling two goals behind early, the Mt. Ararat High School boys lacrosse team settled in and showed Brunswick that, this time, it was here to play. A pair of first-half goals from senior Sawyer Watson kept the Eagles in it and as halftime approached, it was a threescore game. “If we can just keep it at three headed into the half,” thought Mt. Ararat coach Matt Haskell. It might have been a different game.

Finally, though, the dynamic Brunswick offense shrugged off a slow start, sloppy giveaways and a slick playing surface and took its typical grip on a game. The Dragons punched in three goals inside the final four minutes of the half on their way to a 13-8 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference win.

“I think we just needed to settle down,” Brunswick coach Don Glover said. “We were playing undisciplined. Their keeper (Parkey Lacey) played incredible, played really well and our shot quality wasn’t that great. We just weren’t making quality shots and also, we were rushing our offense a fair amount tonight. We like to transition, but we didn’t cherish the ball as much as we should have.”

Lacey (13 saves) made several key blocks for Mt. Ararat (3-4) in the first half, but in the last few minutes, Brunswick (5-0) mixed it up. Up 6-3 with possession, midfielder Henry Doherty gathered the ball from distance during a pass-around. Without hesitation, he fired it toward the cage and rippled the net to make it 7-3. Just a minute later, attacker Aiden Glover completed his hat trick before Andrew Eno got open right in front of Lacey at 1:43 and buried it.

Just like that, the Dragons were in total control.

“We played tougher defense,” Haskell said. “I thought we did a pretty good job. It was tough, with four minutes to go it was 6-3, if we could have gotten into halftime at 6-3, but they pumped I think three in so it was 9-3.”

“We lost our focus, definitely, during part of the game,” Aiden Glover said. “We definitely weren’t playing our brand of lacrosse. I think we got back to it towards the end of the game.”

Aiden Glover led the way in a Brunswick attack that out-shot the Eagles 27-6 in the first half. His older brother Christian opened the game’s scoring on a long run and shot combo before Aiden finished off a circular run around the cage with a goal at 7:51. Josh Dorr (three goals) got on the board less than 30 seconds later and then Aidan Glover again ran in from behind the net and scored the last goal of the first frame to make it 4-1.

“I think he played well,” coach Glover said of Aiden. “In the frantic pace, he was trying to do a little bit too much at times. He was playing physical on the rides and we got into some penalty situations. Him, personally, I think he played well.”

Offensive Eagles

One of those penalty situations carried over into the second frame, where Mt. Ararat long-stick midfielder Steven Schuman slung a ball into the cage to get a goal back. Despite testing Brunswick cage-minder Connor Pendergast just seven times in the first half, most were on favorable looks. Watson sunk two and later completed his hat trick in the fourth quarter.

“He’s a shifty player, does a good job,” Haskell said. “We could have moved the ball a little bit better to generate more options. I thought we were going on the first look and not being patient and going through all the checkpoints in the offense.”

“They came out definitely firing,” Don Glover said of the Eagles. “From first game to this game, they were focused. They had desire, they wanted to make a statement and they did. Our guys were I think a little bit not as focused. I think we could have played better, but I have to tip my hat to Mt. Ararat. They came out, taking care of details, doing the little things right.”

Schuman and Orion Sargent (up-a-man opportunity) added goals in the third frame before the Eagles, with many Brunswick starters on the bench, took over the fourth. Jason Magno got it started by intercepting a long pass at midfield and then running in on goal and rifling it home to make the score 12-6. After Dorr added the Dragons’ final goal of the night, Watson beat Jeremy Vuong in net twice to round out the scoring.

The Eagles scored four times the goals they did on April 20 (a 16-2 defeat) and the improvement was evident on Aiden Glover.

“Coach Haskell, he’s a great guy, good coach,” Aiden Glover said. “Definitely knows what he’s talking about and he really works them pretty hard. He does a good job.”

Mt. Ararat earned two straight wins over Cony and Westbrook prior to Monday and only seem to be heading in one direction

“We feel good,” Haskell said. “It was a much better showing this time around. We’ll get ready for Freeport on Thursday.”

On the Brunswick side of things, the penalties and uncharacteristic turnovers point to lack of practice time because of all the recent weather. Playing on the rain-soaked turf at Bowdoin certainly didn’t help things.

“It’s pretty slick,” Aiden Glover said of the playing surface. “And we’ve only had three or four outdoor practices, so it does stink. But that’s not really an excuse.”

“We’ve been on our practice field four days on the entire season,” coach Glover said. “We need to get out of the gym, we need to get outside. This opened our eyes to a lot of things in regards to we need to be playing full field and get everything out.”

The Dragons will host Kennebunk on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Brunswick 13,
Mt. Ararat 8

At Bowdoin College
Brunswick — 4 5 3 1 — 13
Mt.Ararat — 1 2 2 3 — 8
Goals — (B) Christian Glover, Aiden
Glover 4, Josh Dorr 3, Nate Girardin,
Aaron Carlton, Henry Doherty 2,
Andrew Eno. (MtA) Sawyer Watson 4,
Steven Schuman 2, Orion Sargent,
Jason Magno.
Assists — (B) Christian Glover 3,
Aiden Glover; (MtA) Connor Brown,
Mark Abreu 2, Orion Sargent.
Shots — Brunswick 38, Mt. Ararat
21.
Saves — (B) Connor Pendergast 2,
Jeremy Vuong 2; (MtA) Parker Lacey
13.
Face-offs — Brunswick 12, Mt.
Ararat 11.
Records — Brunswick 5-0, Mt.
Ararat 3-4.
Up next for the Dragons — Thursday
at home against Kennebunk, 6:30
p.m.
Up next for the Eagles — Thursday
at home against Freeport, 5:30 p.m.

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