SCARBOROUGH – After Scarborough coasted by Thornton Academy 15-4 in a regular season matchup, the Trojans entered Saturday’s Class A West semifinal contest with a singular approach: contain John Wheeler and Jon Blaisdell, the Red Storm’s most potent attackmen.

The strategy worked. For a while, anyway.

With Scarborough holding a 2-1 lead in the fourth quarter, Wheeler busted out for three goals in just over two minutes, sandwiching a goal by teammate Andrew Jones to give the Red Storm a 6-1 lead on the way to a 7-1 victory over the No. 4 Trojans.

The No. 1 Red Storm (12-1) will host second-ranked Kennebunk on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Scarborough High School, with the winner advancing to the state championship on Saturday. The Red Storm beat the Rams 9-6 during the regular season.

Wheeler’s outburst followed a long offensive drought for the Storm.

Scarborough (12-1) got the on the board first early in the first quarter Saturday thanks to a goal by Ryan Pallotta, but were stymied the rest of the quarter by terrific goaltending from Thornton’s Brett Levasseur.

With Levasseur playing out of his mind and the Trojans playing a conservative, defensive style, the Red Storm defense was rarely challenged until the final minutes of the quarter.

With just 2:04 remaining in the opening quarter, Thornton’s Greg Lodge tied the score, beating Scarborough goalie David Pearson.

Following Lodge’s tying goal, the Trojans seemed content to pack it in defensively and wait for a Red Storm mistake to attack in transition. With Wheeler and Blaisdell being taken out of the game, it was up for the Red Storm to find another form of offense.

Jones provided the punch with 6:11 to go in the first half.

After a Trojan turnover in the midfield, Jones, a long pole, attacked right down the middle of the field. When no Trojans decided to mark him for fear of Wheeler or Blaisdell coming open, Jones fired a shot from just inside the box to beat Levasseur and give the Red Storm a 2-1 lead.

The contest was effectively decided in a 2:07 stretch in the second half when Wheeler was finally able to get going.

Jones found Wheeler just outside the crease before he buried his first of the contest with 10:58 to play in the fourth quarter. Jones would add his second of the game 1:18 later.

Wheeler added his second 38 seconds later and scored his third of the quarter just 10 seconds after the face-off to crush any hopes the Trojans had of making it a game.

Pallotta would add his second of the game with 2:31 to play to give the Red Storm a 7-1 victory and a trip to western finals.

John Wheeler tries desperately to get a shot through three Trojan defenders during the second half of the Red Storm’s 7-1 victory.