TOPSHAM — Three times in the opening five minutes of Thursday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference girls’ high school lacrosse game, Mt. Ararat lined up for a free-position shot. Each time, Lewiston goaltender Kaylyn Labonte turned the shots away.

From there, it was all Blue Devils, who finished their regular season with a resounding 11-1 victory and an 8-4 mark heading into the postseason.

For Mt. Ararat (5-7), it was again the tale of the entire season, chance after quality chance wasted on the offensive end, a problem Eagles coach Sam Chard hopes to fix before his team begins the postseason next week.

“We have to capitalize on our shots,” said Chard, whose Eagles trailed 6-0 at the half despite an advantage in possession and draw controls (6-1). “They come down and score right off the bat and it put us on our heels. We just started going back to our old habits. We have tried to break those habits of shooting high on a tall goalie. We can’t shoot high. We had a lot of turnovers, just our own enemy today.”

Lewiston defenders/midfielders Emily Gosselin, Morgan Eliasen, Olivia Bergeron, Tawni Zamrock, Kristina Blais, Gabrielle Wilson, Sasha Leclair and Dacia Bail forced Mt. Ararat into several turnovers and rode the momentum of Labonte’s early saves to take control.

“That picked us up right away,” said Wilson of the stops by her goaltender. “We usually get down a couple, then come back in the second half. We are a second-half team most of the time. This game, we were so good in the beginning and cheering each other on. It was great.”

“The free positions are not as big of a challenge when they are on the first hash, and those three were coming from pretty wide and not right in front of the cage,” Lewiston coach Skip Capone said. “We got a goal right off the bat, and then we started to play. We got the ball up and down the field pretty well today, especially from the end of the first half when they were trying to double everything.”

Scoring spree

In the first meeting back on May 5 in Lewiston, the Blue Devils, according to Capone, did not play their best game despite coming out on top by a 3-2 score over the Eagles.

This time around, Lewiston had 3-0 lead in the game’s first 11 minutes, with Julia St. Laurent, Christine Chasse and St. Laurent again putting shots behind Mt. Ararat goaltender Eleanor Skinner (four saves).

“We were able to finally put the ball into the net,” Capone said. “Teams are going to be patient against us, but when the score tied or when we are ahead, it is to our advantage. They tried to be patient, and then when they forced it the ball was on the ground. Plus, we were able to focus on their key player, Erin Tome. We took away her drives, which was big.”

Goals 1:22 apart by Chasse and Bergeron made for a 5-0 contest, and Blais capped Lewiston’s big first half with a goal with 29.5 seconds remaining in the frame.

Mt. Ararat continued to win draw controls in the second half, led by Tome, who had five groundballs and two interceptions. However, Labonte had to make just one more save in the second half, finishing with five stops, as Lewiston outshot Mt. Ararat, 19-8 overall.

“Our offense has to be a little more creative and drive, take some risks. We are just going around in a circle,” Chard said.

“We just realized that we had to pick things up in the beginning, and we have gotten better since the first time we played them,” said Wilson, who added a goal and an assist in the second half.

Trailing 8-0, Tome found rare space among the Lewiston defenders before depositing a shot with 14:13 remaining. But, Blais (two goals, one assist) and Chasse (three goals) answered over the next five minutes before Wilson brought about running time with 8:43 left.

Bergeron had two goals and an assist for Lewiston, which is scheduled to meet Messalonskee in the KVAC title game on Saturday at Thomas College in Waterville. Zamrock chipped in a goal, while Bail and Leclair dished out an assist each. Eliasen led the Blue Devils with four groundballs.