LEWISTON– With his team missing a pair of starting fullbacks, Edward Little boys’ soccer coach Dave Morin was in a festive mood. Using what he called a “Christmas Tree defense” against a more talented Lewiston team, his squad kept things close.

In the end, it was too much talent on the other side of the field as the Blue Devils captured a 3-1 win over the Red Eddies.

“We were using a 2-3-4-1 defense,” said Morin. “We didn’t want them coming around us.”

The keys in the formation were dropping back midfielders Ian Therriault and Adam Timberlake deeper in the defensive formation with Therriault marking Lewiston’s Benji Abdisalan Saban.

The formation worked well in keeping the match tight in the first half with Saban scoring the lone goal from about 20 yards out when he went into a slide and blasted a low shot past EL keeper Ben Bowles (12 saves).

“We got caught a couple of times in that formation, but overall it worked pretty well,” said Morin.

The Blue Devils (9-1-1) appeared to put the game away after an increase in their intensity in the second half, outshooting the Red Eddies (3-6-1) by a 18-12 margin after the break.

With 25:36 left in the match, Yusuf Yama found himself open from about 10 yards out. He unloaded a shot on goal which clanged off the left post before the ball bounded right back too him. With the diving Bowles still on the ground, Yama simply tapped the ball just under the crossbar to give the Blue Devils a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead.

“I had a feeling I was going to score,” said Yama. “I saw the ball and just kicked it in.”

The Red Eddies had multiple chances to score, including one 10 minutes after Yama’s score, but Nate Blais’ shot from in tight sailed wide of the Lewiston cage.

Edward Little managed to cut the deficit in half off a corner kick with 9:40 left. Zachary Tannanbaum’s kick from the corner was converted into a goal by Terriault amid a great deal of traffic in front.

“We just broke down focus,” said Lewiston coach Mike McGraw. “Teams aren’t going to give up. Not EL. They have too much pride and they’re dangerous.”

The Red Eddies put all sorts of pressure toward the offensive end of the field over the next few minutes. Their best chance to tie the match came when Jared Pelletier blasted one of the right post moments later. As the Red Eddies attempted to tie the score, they broke from their defensive formation and the Blue Devils took advantage.

This time it was Benji Abdisalan Saban and Yama working a beautiful give and go in front of the EL cage with 3:42 to go. Saban passed to Yama and broke down the middle. Yama touched a pass back and Saban put the ball behind Bowles.

“Coach told us if I see Benji, to go one and one, and I did it,” said Yama. “Those guys are tough. They play physical and they have got talent.”

“The last time we played them,” said Morin of the earlier tie between the two teams, “we had one chance to score and we scored. We had some chances today. We could have scored three or four goals. We came close a couple of times.”