SACO — The Thornton Academy boys lacrosse team has several players who can take over a game by themselves, but on Friday evening the Golden Trojans showed off a balanced scoring attack as they cruised to a 17-5 victory over Massabesic.
The Trojans would still get big games from some of their stars as both Noah Edborg and CJ LaBreck scored five goals. But when the final buzzer sounded, seven different TA players had found the back of the cage on Friday with Tom Levasseur and Jack Webb adding two goals apiece and Nathan Varle, Alec McAlary and Wyatt LeBlanc all scoring once.
“That’s what we were looking for tonight. Not anybody to go out and just run isolation plays for themselves and try to get points for themselves. We really looked to run the offense and spread out the offense and get people the ball that were open,” said TA coach Ryan Hersey.
Levasseur believes the Trojans’ tough practices help make sure every TA player is ready to contribute when their number is called.
“Offensively, it’s not about one or two different stars on the team because the good part about our team is we have a bunch of young guys who really step up every day in practice and we make sure we push each other so that everybody is ready to go out there and commit 100 percent on the field,” Levasseur said.
Thornton Academy would hold a slim 3-1 lead after the first period on Friday, but the Trojans broke things open with a 6-1 second-quarter run to make it 9-2 at halftime.
The Trojans outscored the visiting Mustangs 4-2 in the third to make it 13-4. TA would finish the game strong with four goals in the fourth quarter, while giving up just one score to Massabesic.
Massabesic coach Steve Gallo knew his team was in for an uphill battle.
“I told them (coming into the game) I had no magic formula to win this game,” Gallo admitted. “Our goal was just to keep composed and see where the chips would fall. I think we did that for the most part. I’m just going to tell them ‘hey, that’s the high water mark. That’s the best you’re going to see, so you’ve seen it all now.’”
The Mustangs were led by Cam Roy and Max Irons with two goals each. Jacob Travis added one goal in the loss.
Despite the loss, Gallo was impressed with his team’s effort throughout the contest.
“We had weaknesses with that early in the season against Kennebunk and Windham,” said Gallo. “We’ve been really working on it lately and I think we showed that we solved that issue against Bonny Eagle and I think, despite what the scoreboard said, we showed that tonight … that we are going to fight from start to finish.”
Hersey was impressed with Massabesic’s ability to keep battling back despite being down throughout the game.
“Massabesic is one of those teams that is continually getting better,” Hersey said. “I still think they beat us at the ground-ball game because they work hard. We told our team that they are going to come out and grind and we just had to play our game.”
Thornton Academy has made a statement through its first four games, but the Trojans know they can’t just put it in cruise control as the season rolls along.
“We’re doing pretty well for right now, but we obviously have a long way to go,” said Levasseur. “We’ve beat some pretty good teams (so far this season) but everybody in the state is only going to get better … we need to look at the next game, but we also need to look to get better every day so that come June we are ready to play.”
NOTES: Wyatt LeBlanc had five assists to go along with his one goal for TA … The Trojans will visit Scarborough on Wednesday … Massabesic (3-3) will host Marshwood on Wednesday night.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.

Copy the Story Link