Boys Lacrosse: Bonny Eagle surges in the third, but Windham triumphs in the end

STANDISH—Griffin Madore capped a Bonny Eagle surge in the third quarter vs. visiting Windham on Thursday night, April 25: Madore notched the fifth of five goals in eight minutes for the Scots, tying the contest at 7-7.

The Eagles soon regained their footing, however, and ultimately went on to win 12-8.

“We studied their film from last year; we had a general idea as to how they operate,” Bonny Eagle head coach Andrew Slefinger said of Windham. “And we were just trying to beat them on the opposition.”

Windham dashed out front 6-2 through the first half. The Eagles looked to have the game in the bag: If they could control the attack that effectively through the downhill minutes as well, they would no doubt take a W.

“In the first half, we were able to control the midfield a little bit more than we were in the third quarter,” Windham head coach Pete Small said of his boys’ success to start the evening. “We were able to win the faceoffs and we were really patient on the offensive end, looking for some openings.”

“We just weren’t moving the ball well,” Slefinger said of the Scots’ first-half efforts. “[Windham’s] good in transition, and that’s what cost us. Between the boxes today, whether it be ground balls or their quick transition game – that’s what was the key factor in this game.”

But Bonny Eagle adjusted during the break, and jumped onto the field for the third quarter firing on all cylinders. Not only did Wyatt Blanchette – the Scots’ determined faceoff man – win battle after battle on the X, the team moved the ball well on offense and successfully penetrated Windham’s defense over and over.

BE made it 6-3 just 1:10 into the quarter; Windham answered – Liam McCusker did the honors – barely a minute later, but the next four all belonged to the Scots. With roughly five minutes to play, Alex Dyer brought them within one at 7-6; a minute or so after that, Madore struck for 7-all.

“At halftime we preached that we needed to slow things down,” Slefinger said. “It’s common sense: The ball moves faster than any man, and we just kept spinning the ball and waiting for that right look. Getting the D off their angle, off their slides, and then attacking what we saw.”

“They were dominating,” Small said of Bonny Eagle’s surge. “They’ve got a tremendously talented faceoff guy, and he was just raking it and getting it and pressing offensively. It was a hard thing for us to readjust.”

Small described the Scots’ tactic: “There was a sort of motion they were making that we were able to pick up on, but it took us a little bit to adjust to exactly how and where they were passing it to. And they have multiple looks out of that formation.”

Windham countered: The Eagles cottoned on to BE’s offensive maneuvering, made their own adjustments, and outpaced the Scots 5-1 across the rest of the outing. The team jumped out front 8-7 with two minutes remaining in the third when Tyler Woolston curled around from behind the Bonny Eagle net to best keeper Cole Sullivan.

Windham then piled on three more in the first six minutes of the fourth: Matty Babb, Tommy Lekousi and Travis Brown tallied one apiece for an 11-7 upper-hand. At 4:50, Dylan Cobbett added another for the Scots, scoring from the top of the circle, but the Eagles had soared too far ahead. 12-8 the final.

“Tommy Lekousi, at the midfield level,” Small said, asked who played well. “Seth Wall, new position for him at LSM; he’s splitting time with Brady Jackson and the two of them really helped us in the first half and in the fourth quarter to kind of dominate.”

“Ty Woolston, offensively, even though he wasn’t scoring a lot of goals today,” Small continued. “And also Matty Babb. He’s new to attack. He gained some speed in the off-season, some strength. He’s played midfield in the past, but we were looking to change some things up.”

Dyer finished with three goals and two assists for the Scots. Cobbett had two goals, Madore two goals and three assists, Vinnie Bruni a goal and an assist, and John Merrill with two assists. Brandon Caron led the team in scooping up ground balls, with seven, and Sullivan recorded seven saves. Blanchette won 15 of the 22 faceoffs he took.

Bonny Eagle slipped on the loss to 1-1; the Scots opened their spring with a 17-2 walloping of Noble. The team was slated to face off at Erskine on Saturday the 27th, but inclement weather forced the postponement of that game. Instead, their next bout will be at home vs. Biddeford on Friday, May 3.

Windham, meanwhile, improved to 2-0. The Eagles kicked off their run by positively murdering poor Sanford, 24-0; they’ve since picked up a third win as well, 10-4 over Massabesic. Their next matchup comes on Wednesday the 1st, on the road at Westbrook.

Adam Birt can be reached at abirt@keepmecurrent.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CurrentSportsME.