SACO—Two Guerrettes are better than one and Falmouth’s sophomore twins Gio Guerrette and Joey Guerrette proved to be too much for the host Thornton Academy Golden Trojans to overcome in an early-class boys’ lacrosse showdown Saturday morning at Hill Stadium.
The young Navigators started sluggishly, as the Golden Trojans shot to a 4-0 lead after one period, but three goals from Joey Guerrette got the visitors going and they drew within one, 5-4, at halftime.
After killing a rarely-seen 6-on-3 penalty midway through the third quarter, Falmouth tied the score on a goal from Gio Guerrette, then Gio Guerrette, who is the older of the twins, by two minutes, scored just 29 seconds into the final stanza to put the Navigators ahead to stay.
That sparked an offensive explosion, as Falmouth added six more goals and went on to a 12-8 victory.
Both Joey and Gio Guerrette scored four times as the Navigators improved to 2-0 on the season, handed Thornton Academy its second straight loss and dropped the Golden Trojans to 1-2 in the process.
“We just had to have a 0-0 mindset,” said Gio Guerrette. “We were down, but we knew we could come back.”
Young and promising
Falmouth, which got to the state final a year ago for the fourth straight season, and fell short, 18-7, to Cape Elizabeth, doesn’t have a lot of upperclassmen, but still is on the short list of favorites this spring.
The Navigators opened with a 15-4 victory over visiting Kennebunk Tuesday.
Thornton Academy won its opener, 18-10, at Westbrook, then lost at home to South Portland, 5-4, Tuesday.
In last season’s meeting, host Falmouth surrendered just four goals, but the Golden Trojans only gave up one.
Saturday, on a chilly, dreary and windy day (just 46 degrees at the start), Thornton Academy appeared to have the Navigators on the ropes early, but Falmouth would answer and earn a big dose of confidence.
Falmouth junior Cole Allan finds himself hounded by Thornton Academy defenders during the Navigators’ 12-8 victory Saturday. Hoffer photos.
The home team set the tone right off the opening faceoff, which was won by junior Cody Southwick, as it came out firing.
Navigators senior goalie Drew Noyes denied a pair of early shots from freshman Noah Veroneau, but with 10:42 to go in the first period, senior Heath McLean set up classmate Ethan LeBlanc for the game’s first goal.
Southwick then won the ensuing faceoff, kept the ball and 22 seconds later, fired a shot past Noyes for a quick 2-0 advantage.
It took just 10 seconds for the Golden Trojans to strike again, as Southwick won the faceoff, the ball came to sophomore Jacob Marcotte and Marcotte fired the ball into the net to make it 3-0, forcing Falmouth coach Dave Barton to use an early timeout.
“Unfortunately, our m.o. early is on is being slow out of the gate,” Barton said.
The break did settle the Navigators down, but couldn’t spark any offense, as Thornton Academy senior goalie Jake Parenteau denied freshman Hayden Davis, Gio Guerrette, Davis again and Joey Guerrette on the rebound.
Noyes kept the game within reach by saving shots from Veroneau, LeBlanc and Veroneau again.
Then, with just 11.5 seconds to go, an unassisted goal from senior Cam Raymond made it 4-0 Golden Trojans after one quarter.
The second period would be a completely different story, as Falmouth rediscovered its scoring ways.
After Parenteau denied Gio Guerrette early in the frame, Joey Guerrette took a pass from junior Caden Barnard and scored with 10:13 remaining in the half.
Junior Cole Allan then hit the post, but the Navigators kept possession and Joey Guerrette set up Gio Guerrette for a goal which cut the deficit to 4-2.
After Parenteau saved an Allan shot, Thornton Academy looked to extend the lead, but Noyes robbed McLean and senior Lucas Hubbard.
With 5:21 on the clock, Joey Guerrette scored for the second time, unassisted, and Falmouth was back within one.
“I was kind of panicking, but I knew we could come back because we’re a strong team,” said Joey Guerrette. “Something was wrong, I don’t know what, but we picked it up in the second quarter.”
The Navigators nearly drew even seconds later, but Barnard hit the post.
After Noyes robbed LeBlanc, the Golden Trojans went man-up and scored their only goal of the quarter, with 1:21 remaining, as Marcotte set up Veroneau, snapping a 10 minute, 50 second drought.
Falmouth got a chance to answer, as Thornton Academy was penalized, and with 25.6 seconds left, Allan set up Joey Guerrette for a man-up goal and the Navigators were only down by one, 5-4, at halftime.
Most of the third period featured frustration for both teams.
Early on, Noyes denied Marcotte and LeBlanc, while Parenteau saved shots from Allan and Joey Guerrette, then robbed sophomore Ty Garlock.
With 6:09 left, the Golden Trojans went man-up for a minute and 37 seconds later, two more Falmouth players were sent off as well, giving Thornton Academy a 6-on-3 advantage.
And seemingly a sure insurance goal.
But instead, the Golden Trojans came up empty, as Marcotte and sophomore Jackson DeLeo were off-target with shots and momentum then turned for good.
“We obviously don’t practice that a lot,” Barton said. “It was just a couple guys making a play.”
With 4:34 on the clock, Gio Guerrette managed to score unassisted, man-down, and the Navigators had completely erased their early deficit.
“There’s a couple different ways to beat a zone and one of them is to step in and shoot,” Barton said. “We have shooters this year who can do that.”
Late in the quarter, Noyes denied a shot from Marcotte and the game went to the fourth period deadlocked, 5-5.
Falmouth then scored five times in less than four minutes to break it open.
Gio Guerrette struck unassisted on the run 29 seconds in and the Navigators had the lead for good.
“I just saw where an opening was and I took it and I took the shot,” said Gio Guerrette.
With 10:49 remaining, Davis scored an unassisted goal for a little breathing room.
After Noyes denied DeLeo at one end, Barnard set up Garlock for a goal at the other and with 9:31 to play, the lead was 8-5.
Falmouth wasn’t done, as 56 seconds later, Davis scored for the second time, from Joey Guerrette.
Then, with 7:53 to play, Joey Guerrette scored for the final time, unassisted, from long range, to stretch the advantage to 10-5.
Thornton Academy tried to answer, as Veroneau set up Marcotte for a man-down goal with 5:26 on the clock, but Gio Guerrette’s final goal (unassisted) with 3:08 remaining, stretched the lead back to five.
With 2:48 to go, Raymond scored unassisted, but with 54.9 seconds left, Gio Guerrette set up Garlock for the Navigators’ final tally.
Raymond scored one last time, unassisted, with 27.7 seconds remaining, but it was too little, too late and Falmouth closed out and celebrated its 12-8 victory.
Falmouth senior goalie Drew Noyes is mobbed by his teammates at the final horn of the Navigators’ 12-8 victory.
“It wasn’t always pretty, but these guys are so tough,” Barton said. “I’m proud. This group just loves to compete. Not a bad effort for having only two seniors on the field all day. We ran three midfielders all day.
“Early on, we weren’t communicating, but communication changed. They have threats down there. Noah’s as slick as they come on that left side. Marcotte is tough. We looked slow, but the guys answered the bell. We have a great defense and once we settled in and focused more on us and less on them, we were fine.
“I’ll take 14 of these (kinds of games). It’s good for us, good for the sport, good for the state.”
Thornton Academy could only be glad that the Guerrettes are twins and not triplets, but Joey and Gio did plenty of damage.
Joey Guerrette finished with four goals and two assists, while Gio Guerrette added four goals and one assist.
“Sibling rivalry keeps us going,” said Joey Guerrette. “I have to do better than him and he has to do better than me.”
“Credit to Joey and Gio,” said Barton. “Seeing the transformation those two have made in the offseason from baby Joey and baby Gio is amazing.”
Davis and Garlock both scored twice.
Barnard had a pair of assists, while Allan finished with one.
Noyes stood tall with 14 saves.
“Our defense played really well,” Gio Guerrette said. “They got a lot of shots off, but Drew’s unbelievable in net and he kept stopping them.”
Junior Torin Svedlow had a game-high seven ground balls.
The Navigators finished with a 27-22 edge in shots on frame and overcame 24 turnovers.
Thornton Academy got three goals from Raymond, two from Marcotte and one apiece from LeBlanc, Southwick and Veroneau.
Marcotte, McLean and Veroneau each had one assist.
Parenteau saved 15 shots.
The Golden Trojans won 13 of 24 faceoffs, enjoyed a 38-30 ground ball advantage (senior Hayden Whitney led the way with five), had a 38-37 edge in total shots and turned the ball over 21 times.
“It’s easy to be loud and feel good when you’re up 4-0, but it just seemed like every goal (Falmouth) got, our body posture started sinking and sinking,” Thornton Academy coach Ryan Hersey lamented. “This isn’t a game that’s friendly to those who feel sorry to themselves. After (not scoring 6-on-3), it was just a downward spiral that a lot of guys had a hard time getting out of. We have to be tougher. We got some good shots, we just didn’t finish. It was still tied (heading to the fourth quarter) and we still could have come out and played and won. We wanted to possess the ball more. They can’t score if we have the ball on our end, but we continued to go and force things when we could have been more patient.”
Cape challenge
Thornton Academy’s gauntlet gets even more daunting Wednesday when Cape Elizabeth pays a visit.
“Cape’s not going to give us any free passes either,” Hersey said. “It actually gets harder with them. We have to go out and execute and be more patient on offense.”
Falmouth, meanwhile, returns home Tuesday to face Gorham, then the Navigators see Cape Elizabeth next Saturday on the road.
“We can’t let this get to our heads, that we beat a top team,” said Joey Guerrette. “We just want to keep playing like we’re playing so we can go far.”
“We just have to come out harder and get on top first,” Gio Guerrette said.
“We’re young, we’re the ‘Baby Navs,’ but I think our best things are ahead of us,” Barton added. “We still have a lot of learning to do and we’ll get every team’s best shot. Gorham will come out flying, but this group comes to work every day. Our rallying cry is that (practice is) our best two hours of the day.”
Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net.
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