PORTLAND – With two of the state’s top two goalies manning the nets, goals were expected to be at a premium Thursday when Thornton Academy faced off against Portland in a boys’ lacrosse season opener at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

In fact, more than 30 minutes of play elapsed before either team was able to score, but Thornton Academy found just enough offense to eke out a 3-2 win against the Bulldogs.

Greg Lodge scored two goals to lead them offensively, but it was solid defensive play, keyed by goalie Brett Levasseur’s 13-save performance, that produced the win for the Trojans.

“We’re going to hang our hats on the defense this year,” TA Coach Ryan Hersey said. “We have a lot of new guys in on the offensive end, and it’s going to take some time to develop some scorers and some finishers. I imagine we’re going to have some very low-scoring games, especially in the beginning of the year.”

“It was a great defensive game both ways, and it came down to they took advantage of their opportunities and we squandered ours,” Portland Coach Eric Begonia said.

Levasseur made 10 of his saves during the scoreless first half.

“They just play that tight zone where you have to take advantage of opportunities inside because they don’t come very often,” Begonia said. “We had some really good inside looks and we just didn’t finish. Their goalie stepped up big.”

Portland goalie Ryan Jurgelevich was nearly as impressive, stopping 8 of 11 shots.

“To come out and win against one of the top goalies in the state is nice,” Levasseur said. “It’s a big, big confidence boost for our team.”

The Bulldogs’ Mike Fuller opened the scoring 7:26 into the third quarter when he bounced in a shot from 15 yards to the left of the goal, but Lawrence Chabot scored the equalizer exactly 33 seconds later off a nifty feed from Cody Forbes.

“After the first half, I was really surprised it was still 0-0 with two high-scoring teams,” Levasseur said. “When they scored it kind of lit a fire under (us), and we had to get going.”

Lodge broke the tie when he scored with less than four minutes left in the third quarter. He struck again less than six minutes into the fourth quarter to make it 3-1.

Portland attackman Max Pierter completed the scoring with 5:02 left to play.

“We had trouble clearing the ball today, but we were able to get back and get into position and set up our zone,” Hersey said. “We made sure anything that was passed into the middle we had a stick and a body on that person as quickly as possible.”

The Bulldogs held a 10-5 edge in shots during the scoreless first half.

Portland was able to get the ball past Levasseur once during the first 30 minutes.

But that goal was waved off when officials ruled Taylor Browne was inside the crease without the ball before catching and shooting it.

Less than a minute later, Browne got another chance to go one-on-one against Levasseur, but he made the stop.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH