High school sports coverage is proudly supported by Maine State Credit Union. 

View 10 photos

SACO — Eleven straight victories were enough to suggest the Thornton Academy boys lacrosse team was the best in the state. But the Golden Trojans knew they had a chance to bolster their case Tuesday evening.

And they were ready for it.

Ben White scored four goals, Charlie Lamey added three, and Thornton toppled Yarmouth, 12-8, in a matchup of two of the top three teams in the Varsity Maine poll.

The Trojans, ranked No. 1, improved to 12-0. The third-ranked Clippers, who got four goals from Ian Minnihan, fell to 9-3.

“It was definitely the biggest test of the season,” White said. “We’ve been getting in our heads, we’ve been getting stupid turnovers. I think we just cleaned that up. It still wasn’t perfect, but we got the win. That’s all that matters.”

Scoring swings

• Thornton gained the upper hand first. Chase Paquette skimmed in a shot with 1:11 left in the first quarter and White scored top shelf with 25.6 seconds left. White and Ben Knox each added a goal exactly a minute apart, with 6:49 and 5:49 to go in the second quarter, to make it 4-0.

“I wanted to get the team hyped up, rallied up,” White said. “That’s definitely the most important thing, momentum. It’s a momentum game.”

• Yarmouth made a charge at the end of the second quarter. George Brown put the Clippers on the board with 3:48 to go, and Minnihan netted his first with 3:05 remaining in the half. Yarmouth then followed a Carter Nelson goal with two Minnihan tallies to make it 5-4 going into halftime.

• Thornton found a rhythm out of the break, however. White scored from the left side, Lamey worked his way into the middle for a goal, and Trevor Baillargeon and Lamey each added a goal to stretch the margin to 9-4 going into the fourth.

“We just ignore it,” Lamey said of the Yarmouth rally. “We just stay in our own game plan, make sure we’re keeping our heads up, keeping the energy high.”

Net gain

Though Thornton built an early lead, it wasn’t through lack of Yarmouth effort. The Clippers put six shots on net in the first 18 minutes, but Trojans keeper Collin Pennell stopped them all.

“After that first save, you just feel so good,” he said. “You kind of enter a flow state and you feel great from there. Even if one goes in, you can’t let yourself get down. You’ve got to keep your head up.”

Into the setting sun

The Trojans outscored Yarmouth 2-0 in the first quarter and 4-0 in the third, and Thornton coach Ryan Hersey said that wasn’t an accident: That’s when his team was shooting with the setting sun in the eyes of Clippers goalie Will Redfield.

“I liked how we were patient with the ball on offense, and really took advantage of the sun on Will,” Hersey said. “We said, let’s shoot in the sun. Let’s use that to our advantage and take everything we can with a goalie like that.”

Yarmouth coach Jon Miller agreed that the sun was a factor.

“I had sunglasses on. When I looked this way, I could barely see anything,” he said. “Our goalie actually made a couple of saves into the sun, I don’t know how he saw the ball.”

Hard fought

Miller said he would have liked his team to be more aggressive, but he was happy with its fight after falling behind early.

“We proved we can score. We have to do it for a full 48 minutes,” he said. “But this team, I’m never worried about their effort. They’re up for games, they work hard.”

Stat leaders

• Yarmouth: Ian Minnihan (four goals), Hakon Yeo (two goals), George Brown (two goals)

• Thornton: Ben White (four goals), Charlie Lamey (three goals), Chase Paquette, Ben Knox, Carter Nelson, Trevor Baillargeon, Will Edborg (goal apiece)