They, and probably all of us, prefer a battle when there’s been frost on the pumpkin and when both sides have their timing and teamwork completely worked out.

Still, Tuesday night’s clash at Don Roux Field — a 2-0 Blue Devils victory — brought smiles to both sides of the river.

Lewiston exhibited the flash and firepower that promises to make it one of the co-favorites in the KVAC and Eastern Class A. And for its part, young EL ran stride-for-stride with its rival and didn’t look the least bit awestruck.

“Early in the second half had we popped the third goal on them, that might have taken the wind out of their sails, but the longer it stayed the same score the more encouraged EL was,” Lewiston coach Mike McGraw said. “And they’re good. They’re going to be a dangerous team.”

Two goals in the final 10:08 of the opening half, including one with seven seconds remaining, launched Lewiston to victory.

Freshman Abdi Shariff-Hassan furnished the first goal after Mike Wong’s free kick from 25 yards out.

EL goalkeeper Llewellyn Jensen lunged forward to slap down the ball and make the initial save, but Shariff-Hassan was there to find a seam just inside the left post.

Abdibaari Hersi played give-and-go with speedy senior Mohamed Ali for the second strike just before the half ended.

“I’m happy we finished the way we did. We have a lot of room for improvement,” McGraw said. “That’s probably first-game insecurity, but I have a feeling that teams are going to play us very hard and they’re going to present problems. EL presented some different problems in the second half and I think we just weathered it.”

EL was playing its first-ever game without Dave Morin, the program’s coach since its inception in the 1970s. Morin retired in the offseason.

Matt Andreasen is now in charge of the Red Eddies. His primary opening-night adjustment —  bringing Maslah Hassan and Mohamed Ali off the bench to counter Lewiston’s front-line speed in the second half —worked swimmingly.

Eight second-half saves by goalie Eric Soucy helped the Devils overcome a flurry of corner kicks and direct kicks by the Eddies. Junior Doud Idow anchored the Lewiston defense.

“I’m really encouraged. I think a lot of people consider Lewiston the team to beat and you can see why. They’re very talented, they’re explosive, they counteract, they’re well-coached,” Andreasen said. “We came in with a more defensive game plan, and falling behind 2-0, you can’t play defensive. Like I said to the kids, we’re not playing for a 2-0 loss. So we opened it up a little bit and pushed numbers forward and we were pretty strong in the second half.”

Jensen made 17 saves for EL, including 11 to keep Lewiston off the board after intermission.

Michael Cote, Kaleb Main, Corey Morin and Brandon Polisky helped keep tabs on Ali and Kusow Aden, both of whom narrowly missed the crossbar with first-half bids.

“You look at this Lewiston team, it’s a well-oiled machine. They’re farther along than we are right now,” Andreasen said. “We’re not there yet, but as long as we take something from this game, and I thought we progressed and played better as the game went on and that’s what we need to do.”

Lewiston faces another tough home test Wednesday, weather permitting, against Mt. Ararat.

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