FREEPORT

The Mt. Ararat High School boys lacrosse team was determined to turn the tide in the second half of Saturday morning’s crossover clash with Freeport.

After falling behind by four scores early, the Eagles controlled the second half behind three straight goals from Sawyer Watson in the fourth quarter and were nipping on the heels of the Falcons.

But, in the end, the surge came a bit too late, and the dominant start to the game was all Freeport needed to secure its second victory of the season, 11-7.

“It’s a huge motivator,” Freeport coach Geoff Arris said. “We’ve been looking for that elusive second win for some time now and we finally earned it.”

The Falcons (2-7) were red hot early, with midfielder Perrin Davidson scoring just 18 seconds into the first quarter. Evan Owen added a score five minutes later before Evan Donald and Davidson made the score 4-0 after the first frame.

“They were moving the ball well,” Mt. Ararat coach Matt Haskell said. “Our defense was not sliding, and they attacked the seams in the defense. They hit the net. They hit the net more than we did today.”

“We were able to work the ball around and look for those open cuts,” Donald said. “We realized early on that our passes were going low for our cuts, but once we realized we needed to put them up higher, our passes were spot on and we could make those easy goals.”

Watson finally got Mt. Ararat (1-7) on the board with 3:57 to go in the second quarter, but it was sandwiched in between three more scores from the hosts. Donald and Brady LaFrance scored past goalie Parker Lacey in the opening five minutes, and Donald scored again with 1:08 left in the half to make the score 7- 1. The junior captain was right in the middle of Freeport’s 23- 10 shot advantage in the first half and led all Falcon scorers with three goals.

“He’s stepping up big time,” Arris said of Donald. “He’s a captain, he’s taking our faceoffs. He rarely comes off the field. He’s a true two-way middie — he’s on offense, he’s on defense, he’s scoring, he’s playing good positional defense. He’s what we ask for.”

The comeback

With the flip of a switch, Mt. Ararat took control of possession and controlled the run of play to begin the second half. After six minutes, Mark Abreu and Jason Magno were on the board and the score was 7-3.

“Our halftime talk was we knew they were going to come out on fire,” Arris said. “They absolutely did. They shut us down pretty much the whole third quarter. We were almost expecting it to a degree, but we also knew we needed to keep our heads in it.”

The Falcons countered with a pair of scores from Reid Poissonnier, but Watson and the Eagles were just getting started. The visitors leading attacker, who tallied a game-high four goals, earned a fourth quarter half-trick and got the score to 10-7 late in the game.

“Effort in the second half,” Haskell said of the difference.” We started to believe and we got things going. Their goalie did a fantastic job. He made some huge saves and that can really sap an offense and take the steam out of you. But, I was very, very impressed with how we played in the second half.

“Sawyer (Watson) is a great all-around attack man … does a good job of dodging. We felt we had a speed matchup with that guy, and that’s why we kept going to him.”

The Eagles forced seven second half saves from Freeport netminder Zac Wogan and outshot the Falcons 20-17 after the break, but time expired before the comeback continued. LaFrance scored the game’s final goal with 3.1 seconds left to close things out for Freeport, which tallied 26 groundballs to Mt. Ararat’s 25.

The victory snaps a three-game losing skid for Arris and his squad, with Freeport’s last win coming on April 30 against Morse.

“We’ve been working very hard,” Arris said. “We’ve been drilling our passing and drilling our shooting. We were finally able to put it together in a game.”

“Just going forward, getting pumped, getting amped,” Donald said. “We haven’t had a strong season so far, but it’s the best season so far in terms of everybody getting hyped, everyone together and acting as a family.”

For Haskell and Mt. Ararat, it’s been an equaling challenging season, with the Eagles’ lone win coming in the season-opener against Oxford Hills. But Saturday was a comeback loss to be proud of.

“If your going to lose a game, it’s always better to play a poor first half and a great second half than the other way around. I was very proud of their efforts,” Haskell said.

Freeport 11,
Mt. Ararat 7

At Freeport High School
Mt. Ararat—0 1 3 3 — 7
Freeport— 4 3 2 1 —11
Goals — (MtA) Sawyer Watson 5, Mark
Abreu, Jason Magno; (F) Perrin Davidson 2, Evan Owen, Evan Donald 3,
Brady LaFrance 2, Reid Poissonnier 2,
Eli Fox.
Assists — (MtA) Hank Gilson; (F) Perrin Davidson 2, Eli Fox, Evan Owen,
Eriksen Shea, Reid Poissonnier.
Shots — Mt. Ararat 30; Freeport 41.
Saves — (MtA) Parker Lacey 10; (F)
Zac Wogan 14.
Face-offs — Mt. Ararat 9, Freeport 9.
Records — Freeport 2-5, Mt. Ararat 1-
7.
Up next for the Eagles — Thursday at
home against Messalonskee, 6:30 p.m.
Up next for the Falcons — Tuesday
at Kennebunk, 6 p.m.