SACO — Cold weather and blustery winds made it difficult for the fans to enjoy the opening game of the season for the Thornton Academy boys lacrosse team.

But not the players.

The Golden Trojans kicked off the 2011 season with a healthy 9-2 stomping over Noble on Saturday afternoon at Hill Stadium.

It would be an even greater start for Thornton attack Chris Dolewa, who scored six of the Trojans’ nine goals on the afternoon, after scoring 16 goals all of last season.

“It is [a career high], but my brother scored 11 goals in one game, so I’m still trying to top that,” Dolewa joked.

Thornton finished the 2010 season 8-8, going deep into the Western Class A playoffs before eventually losing to Scarborough in the regional final.

Though Thornton has lost some key players from last year’s team to graduation, including leading goal scorer Tim Grose, Dolewa believes the 2011 squad is an even tighter unit, which could lead to more production.

“I think this is definitely the most positive team that I’ve ever played on,” Dolewa said. “We mesh really well, we’re all friends, we give each other hugs and high fives all the time. We’re a really close team, and I don’t think that’s something we’ve had so much of in the past. We kind of chirped at each other before when we would get down, but this team really sticks together nicely.”

It’s a trait noticed by Trojans head coach Ryan Hersey.

“We’ve got a good bunch of seniors that are working hard toward being positive with everybody, which is huge,” Hersey said. “They’re buying into what we’re telling them, buying into our system and that allows for some of the younger guys to come along.”

The Trojans started its game with Noble slowly, taking a 1-0 lead late in the first quarter off a Dolewa goal. Thornton collected two more goals in the first half, one by Dolewa off a pass from behind the net by Josh Cyr, along with a goal by Cory Dion, collected off a rebound to give Thornton a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Thornton added three more goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter – all by Dolewa – one of which came off an assist from Tom Abbott, to lengthen the lead to 6-0. Dolewa would add one more goal before he and the starters would sit for most of the fourth quarter. Nate Colpitts and Sean Lynch added the final two goals for Thornton.

Trojans goalie Brett Levasseur kept the shutout going into the fourth quarter, when Tom Doucet and Mikyle Ricker each scored goals for the Knights.

Thornton doesn’t have long to enjoy the win. The team has a tough stretch of games going into early May, including a matchup on Wednesday against Deering.

Hersey said keeping the team atmosphere going will be key going forward.

“Just play within what we’re asking them to do,” Hersey said. “Play within our system, and not try to take it on individually. I think Chris is going to have a tough time doing some of the one-on-one moves he did today against some of those better teams. Just being patient, moving the ball around and looking for that open person is going to be key. We’ve got a big stretch. We’ve got Deering and Cheverus, an then Gardiner, which is a big game. Then we have Scarborough, so we’ve got some big games coming up.”

– Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318