AUBURN — It didn’t take long for a little bit of tinkering to pay off in a big way.

In her first attempt at a penalty kick in a game, sweeper Shae Godbout nearly drove the ball through the twine. In her first game on the wing after moving up from halfback, Kenzi Sullivan displayed the deft touch and speed of a natural scoring forward.

Add to that a solid performance in the cage from Emily Dixon, and the end result was a head-turning 3-0 victory for the Lewiston Blue Devils over rival Edward Little in girls’ soccer action on Thursday.

“This is a really good feeling for these girls,” Lewiston coach Butch Dow said. “It’s been a long time since the Lewiston girls beat EL, never mind a shutout.”

“It comes down to this,” EL coach Craig Latuscha said. “They took advantage of the opportunities they got. They got three great chances. They put the ball in the back of the net. We had a couple chances, and we didn’t bury the ball.”

Godbout’s foray into the offensive zone was the result of a practice drill earlier in the week, during which she displayed a knack for finding the corners of the cage during a penalty kick drill.

“She was placing every one of them,” Dow said. “Without even thinking about it, she just did it.”

That first chance came in the team’s very next game. Mikaela St. Laurent tried to speed into the zone up the left wing and an overly-aggressive play from an EL defender sent St. Laurent flying just inside the box. Officials awarded the Devils a penalty kick, and Dow sent Godbout to the line, where she wasted little time in burying the chance for a 1-0 lead.

“When someone has that ability, or that skill, I’m not going to waste it,” Dow said.

The teams battled evenly in the opening minutes of the second half before Lewiston again applied pressure. This time, EL keeper Taylor Landry was up to the task and turned back a handful of early attempts.

EL then had a chance going the other way, and as Jaclyn Masters broke toward the cage from the left side, a collision between Masters and a Lewiston defender prompted calls from the EL sideline for a penalty kick, similar to that awarded the Blue Devils in the first half. No call ensued, and the Devils appeared to seize the momentum.

“They had the confidence, they had the 1-0 lead, and they took it to us,” Latuscha said. “They beat us to the 50-50 balls, something that hasn’t happened in the past.”

Sullivan made Dow’s decision to flip-flop her and Kayla Hamel pay off with 15 minutes to play in regulation.

“That was the first time she’d played wing,” Dow said. “Kayla tends to knock the ball a bit too hard from in close, so we tried the switch.”

Sullivan broke early on a corner kick that dribbled off the foot of Landry. With one touch, she spun a shot to the far left post, where it banked in behind the helpless Eddies’ keeper for Lewiston’s second tally.

“The past couple of times, her kick had been weaker,” Sullivan said. “I could tell she was getting tired. So I knew if it was high or low, I could pick it off.”

Sullivan and Godbout hooked up for the Devils’ third strike. Godbout took a free kick from just outside midfield. EL tried to draw Lewiston offside, but Sullivan timed her run perfectly, raced past everyone else and knocked the ball in short side.

With two consecutive wins, Dow is excited about the chance to turn the team’s early swoon around.

“Last year, we did this, but we started later in the season, going uphill,” Dow said. “This year, with tournaments we started earlier, we’re actually starting to get our momentum now, earlier in the season, which is good for us.”