WATERBORO — In a wet and rainy matchup, the Massabesic boy’s lacrosse team squared off with the Biddeford Tigers in a heated contest, losing by a score of 14-8.

Temperatures hovered at 50 degrees at the opening whistle, with a light drizzle persisting throughout the duration of the game. Despite poor conditions, both teams looked poised. The Massabesic squad came into the matchup 2-0, while the Tigers record sat at 0-1, having lost to a talented Gorham team previously.

The Mustangs opened the scoring with a quick goal in the game’s opening two minutes, however Biddeford answered promptly with a goal of their own. From there on scoring was plentiful and back and forth throughout the half, with goals from Biddeford sophomore C.J. Thorne and Massabesic midfielders Cameron Roy and senior Ethan Ouellette, amongst others. By half’s end the score stood close at 9-6, Tigers.

The flurry of goals slowed down initially to start the second half, but the contest became more heated as contact increased, and penalties became more abundant.

Biddeford took the first score of the second half with a goal from sophomore attacker C.J. Thorne, but the Mustangs answered quickly with another goal from Ouellette. The Tigers stayed strong in the final quarter, racking up four goals while only giving up one to the Mustangs.

The game was undoubtedly exciting with back and forth action, said Massabesic coach Steve Gallo, adding that despite the loss he was pleased to see his team make improvements in the second half.

“Our defense definitely tightened it up in the second half of that game, there were some good adjustments,” Gallo said. “We did plenty of good things. We had great takes, but their goalie just did a terrific job of shutting down those takes.”

For the Tigers, coach Jason Martel said he was pleased to see his team bounce back after a loss to Gorham previously at home.

“It was a great game, we had to come back from a tough lose last week,” said Martel. “But we’re 1-1 now and the arrows pointing up.”

Martel added that the team improved significantly on their ground ball game from when they played Gorham, ultimately leading to longer stretches in possession for the Tigers.

“The ground ball game is a big thing in lacrosse, and we really needed to improve on that from last week,” Martel said. “We worked on ground balls quite a bit this week, because ground balls are possession, and when you have possession not a lot can go wrong. So I loved seeing that in this game.”

The Mustangs will take on Lewiston next, while the Tigers head to South Portland tomorrow for a makeup game.