KENNEBUNK — The Kennebunk boys lacrosse team entered Monday night’s game against Brunswick as the clear underdog. The visiting Dragons came in as the defending Class A state champions and hadn’t lost a game since the 2014 state finals.

The Rams didn’t care what the matchup looked like on paper.

Kennebunk jumped out to a 10-2 halftime lead and then withstood an early second-half rally from Brunswick as the Rams pulled away for an impressive 16- 6 win.

“Well, we finally played 48 minutes of a game. We saw spurts of it in the past few games, but we just finally played a full game,” said Kennebunk coach Dan Seavey. “(Brunswick) is a good team, a great team, a lot of offensive threats, good defense and they are obviously well coached.”

Spencer Thibodeau led the Rams with four goals and Brendan Whitten scored twice and dished out five assists.

According to Thibodeau, the Rams put in some extra time on the practice field before Monday’s clash.

“We had a good week of training last week and we practiced again on Saturday morning to get reps in before and we just had a good team win today,” said Thibodeau.

That extra preparation paid dividends in the first half as the Rams started the game on fire.

Brunswick would strike first when Jameson Cyr scored less than a minute into the game, but Kennebunk would score three straight – with goals from Bo Beveridge, Thibodeau and Pat Gassman – to take a 3-1 lead with eight minutes left in the first.

The Dragons answered with a goal from Aiden Glover, but Kennebunk would get two straight scores from Donovan Connor to take a 5-2 lead into the second period.

The second period would be all Kennebunk as the Rams would get goals from Gassman, Thibodeau and Brenden Whitten to push the lead to 8-2 with 3:54 remaining in the half.

While the Rams could have slowed the game down and went into halftime with a six-goal lead, coach Seavey decided to let his attackers loose after a timeout with 51 seconds left in the second.

It paid off as Whitten would score with 15 seconds left and Connor beat the Brunswick goalie with just 8 seconds left to give Kennebunk a commanding 10-2 lead at the break.

“It was great,” said Seavey of the two late goals. “We tell them to take the opportunity when it’s there, their defense was pushing way out, we took advantage of it, went to the cage and it’s nice to go into halftime with an eight-goal lead.”

Brunswick came firing out of the gates in the second half and would get back-to-back goals from Ben Palizay and Andrew Eno to cut the lead to 10-4.

Thibodeau would answer for the Rams to push the lead to 11-4, but Brunswick came right back with a goal from Glover to make it an 11-5 score heading into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter would be all Rams as they outscored the Dragons 5-1 to secure the win. Kennebunk would get goals from Whitten, Beveridge, Cam Lovejoy, Thibodeau and Gassman in the final period. Max Gramins scored the lone fourth-quarter goal for Brunswick.

While Thibodeau may have led the Rams in scoring, he passed the credit along to his teammates for setting him up.

“The guys around me moved a lot, they helped a lot off ball, we put in a couple new plays for this game and just rotated off ball really well. My guys found me and I put it in,” said Thibodeau.

Kennebunk goalie Jim Ross had a big game as he stopped 18 shots and helped keep a potent Brunswick offense in check.

“When he’s hot, he’s hot and tonight was one of those nights and he just played excellent,” said Seavey of Ross.

Ross was happy to see his team play well from the first faceoff.

“It was a good game. We played really good and we came out hot. We’ve usually had bad first quarters and we got out with a good start,” said Ross, who was happy to have a big lead, but knew the Dragons wouldn’t quit. “It’s nice, but the game’s never over until it’s over, so you just have to keep working.”

Ross believes Monday’s win was big for the Rams as they head down the stretch.

“Beating a team like that, who was an undefeated team and beat some good teams like Yarmouth, I think we will be able to build off this,” said Ross.

Thibodeau echoed that sentiment.

“We just have to work off this and keep the high going,” said Thibodeau.

For Seavey, it was nice to see his team step up against a team like Brunswick, which came into Monday’s clash on a 22-game winning streak dating back to the 2014 state finals.

“They are a good team,” said Seavey of Brunswick. “Obviously their record was good, 5-0, and it’s always good to get a win, especially against a good program like that.”

Kennebunk (3-3) will host Greely on Thursday, while Brunswick (5-1) welcomes in Mt. Ararat on Wednesday.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.