SACO — There’s always a chance of overlooking an opponent when the next game is so important.

But the second-seeded Thornton Academy boys’ lacrosse team didn’t let that happen Tuesday with a 21-4 victory against seventh-ranked Bonny Eagle in a Class A South quarterfinal at Hill Stadium.

Now the Trojans (12-1) will wait to see if they get the game they really want – a semifinal against third-seeded South Portland (9-3) – the team that knocked them out of the postseason the past three seasons.

South Portland will be home Wednesday against sixth-ranked Massabesic.

Thornton beat the Red Riots 15-9 during the regular season – but also defeated the Red Riots last year beffore falling in the playoffs, 11-8.

“We kind of wanted to make a statement today,” said T.J. Pike, who had three goals and two assists in the first half for Thornton. “I’m not sure who we’re playing, Massabesic or SoPo, but we lost to SoPo … three years in a row. So we have a chip on our shoulder.

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“Today we came out and wanted to prove that no one can play with us. We want (a championship). We want it bad.”

Trojans Coach Ryan Hersey hopes his team faces the best Class A has to offer, including the Red Riots.

“If we are going to do something special this year, we would like to go through all of the teams that have made it difficult for us in years past,” he said. “(South Portland) is definitely on our list. We don’t want to dodge them.”

Thornton came out quickly, with Jaden Wells (four goals) and Pike scoring in the opening 1:48. Bonny Eagle (3-10) made it 2-1 midway through the quarter on its second shot of the period and first on goal. But Thornton answered with four goals in the next four minutes to make it 6-1.

“It’s difficult with a 3-9 team going against an 11-1 team,” said Bonny Eagle Coach Andy Slefinger. “We tried to play to our strengths and not change anything. We ran with it and what we have is what we have. Clearly it didn’t work for us tonight.

“Our game plan was to limit their transition. We know they are an incredibly fast transition team, however at least half of their goals were clearly our mistakes.”

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The Scots had a tough time penetrating the Trojans’ defense of Austin Meserve, Taylor Jipson, Wyatt LeBlanc, Cameron Houde and Eli Arsenault. They collected only eight shots in the first half and trailed, 18-1.

Samuel Edborg of Thornton won the first three faceoffs of the game en route to close to a 75 percent success rate.

“We really just emphasized not trying to do anything that was not going to help us moving forward,” Hersey said. “We were looking to move the ball offensively, get good open looks at the goal, and defensively look at making sure all the fundamentals are there, and putting good pressure on the ball.”

Noah Edborg led Thornton with five goals and one assist, and John Giroux chipped in with three goals and two assists

C.J. Labreck (one goals, two assists) and Jack Webb (two goals, one assist) had three-point games.

Bonny Eagle got goals from Tyler Williams, Johnathan Merrill, Anthony Breton and Tanner McClure.


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