FALMOUTH—There isn’t much separating the Falmouth and Scarborough boys’ lacrosse teams.

And that doesn’t figure to change.

Tuesday evening, in a delicious early-season showdown, the resurgent Red Storm brought their show to Falmouth for a battle of undefeated teams and 48 minutes weren’t enough to determine a winner.

The contest was tied, 3-3, after one quarter and Falmouth clung to a 6-5 lead at the half.

Falmouth then appeared poised to pull away when seniors Wyatt Kerr and Satchel Kaplan scored to extend the lead to three, but late in the third period, junior Finn Pedersen pulled Scarborough within two.

Red Storm junior Tae Delaware and senior Owen Leadley then struck in the fourth quarter and the game was tied.

Not for the last time.

With 6:43 left, junior Rory Skillin-Lanou put Falmouth back on top, but with 1:10 to play, senior William St. Germain tied it for the visitors.

The game would go to overtime, where Scarborough had a great look to win it, but Leadley was robbed by Falmouth sophomore goalie Drew Noyes and after going man-up, Falmouth won it, as Kerr scored for a scintillating 10-9 victory.

Kaplan and Kerr both scored three times, Noyes made 11 saves and Falmouth improved to 4-0 on the season, handing the Red Storm their first loss in four outings.

“It was a very good game,” Kerr said. “We were expecting a close game. (Scarborough’s) a very good team. We look forward to playing them again because this was a really fun game.”

Down to the wire

Scarborough won just four games in 2019 and lost to eventual champion Thornton Academy in the Class A South quarterfinals, but has returned to prominence big-time this season.

The Red Storm opened with victories at Thornton Academy (8-6), at home over South Portland (18-7) and at Windham (12-6).

Falmouth, looking to finish the job of the 2019 squad, which lost in overtime to Thornton Academy in the Class A state final, started the 2021 campaign by downing visiting Kennebunk (10-6), Windham (10-7) and Thornton Academy (9-8).

The teams met twice in 2019 and Falmouth won both games, 14-9 at home and 14-10 in Scarborough.

Tuesday, on a chilly evening, the Red Storm looked for their first win over Falmouth since April 28, 2009 (7-5, at Falmouth), but Falmouth would make it nine straight in the series.

Barely.

It took Scarborough all of 40 seconds to open the scoring, as St. Germain finished unassisted, but Falmouth roared back with three straight goals.

First, Kaplan tied it, unassisted, with 9:38 to go in the first quarter.

Two minutes later, senior Gio Ciraulo gave the hosts their first lead with another unassisted tally.

With 6:24 on the first period clock, Kerr set up Kaplan for a shot which Red Storm senior goalie Josh Medeiros couldn’t stop.

Scarborough answered, as Delaware scored unassisted with 3:38 to go and with 1:59 remaining, senior Ben Cassellius beat Noyes to tie it, 3-3.

The contest remained closed in the second quarter as well.

Just 10 seconds in, off a faceoff win, Falmouth went back on top, as Kaplan set up senior Jonah Eng for a goal.

Just 28 seconds later, senior Sam Gearan fed Skillin-Lanou for a 5-3 lead.

The Red Storm answered off the ensuing faceoff, as junior Sam Rumelhart scored unassisted.

Kerr scored for the first time with 4:24 remaining in the half, unassisted, to stretch the lead back to two goals.

With 2:40 left, Delaware set up St. Germain for a goal and Scarborough trailed by just one, 6-5, at halftime.

Falmouth tried to pull away in the third period, as Kaplan scored unassisted with 8:09 to go and Eng set up Kerr for a goal and an 8-5 lead with 3:54 left, but 37 seconds later, Pedersen answered with an unassisted goal and the Red Storm trailed by two heading for the final 12 minutes.

Scarborough carried momentum into the fourth quarter and pulled within one on an unassisted Delaware goal with 9:32 to play.

Then, with 8:31 left, Pedersen found Leadley for the tying goal.

After Medeiros denied both Kaplan and Eng, Noyes kept Falmouth even by robbing Pedersen.

Then, with 6:43 to play, in transition, Gearan set up Skillin-Lanou for a 9-8 lead.

Scarborough fought hard for the equalizer, but was frustrated by Noyes, who denied two bids from junior Jeremiah Park and another from Leadley.

The Red Storm finally managed to catch up with 1:10 remaining, as Pedersen set up St. Germain to tie it, 9-9.

Falmouth won the ensuing faceoff and looked to go back on top, but Medeiros denied Kaplan.

After forcing a turnover, Scarborough then had a chance to win it with 15.8 seconds to go, but a bid from senior Aidan Joyce was turned aside by Noyes.

The contest would go to overtime, which in Maine high school boys’ lacrosse consists of a four-minute, “sudden victory” session.

Junior Jack Carlista won possession for the Red Storm and Rumelhart scooped up the ball.

Scarborough hoped to win it, but turned the ball over.

Falmouth then sought to end it, but Skillin-Lanou’s shot was saved by Medeiros.

The Red Storm then got another chance with 1:36 showing, as Leadley had a great look, but Noyes stood tall and made a game-saving stop.

Falmouth junior Max Hau won a ground ball in traffic and on the play, Pedersen was called for a slash and was sent off for a minute, giving Falmouth a man-up situation.

And out of a timeout, Falmouth would capitalize.

The ball came to Kaplan who waited for Kerr to make his move and Kaplan set him up on the fly and Kerr turned, shot and beat Medeiros to end it with 1:19 on the clock.

“We’ve practiced man-up a lot the past week,” Kerr said. “Coach said to do it the right way and don’t play hero ball. He told us to make the easy pass and we did that. That’s something (Satchel and I have) done since the fourth grade. We looked at each other beforehand. I just had to turn and shoot. I’ve practiced that a lot. There wasn’t much thinking, just reaction. It felt nice.”

“Satchel had a big game last time out and Wyatt played well today,” said Falmouth coach Dave Barton. “We work a lot on letting the ball do the work man-up. We didn’t want to settle for a good shot when we knew full well we could get a great shot and I’ll take the ball on Wyatt’s stick any day.”

Falmouth 10 Scarborough 9.

“We just talked about cleaning it up and playing with focus and doing what we’ve been practicing, making passes sharp, not forcing anything,” Kerr said. “I was just kind of waiting for our opportunity. I trust our D. They played really well and held their own today.”

“We just hit the reset button,” Barton said. “This is a passionate group and you can feel them trying to do too much. I just told them to focus. We’ve seen Scarborough play a couple times this year. They’re loaded with great seniors who have taken their lumps through the years and I fully expected them to be strong. We just let the players play.”

Kaplan and Kerr each scored three times for Falmouth, while Skillin-Lanou added two goals and Ciraulo and Eng each produced one.

Gearan had a pair of assists, while Kaplan and Kerr each finished with one.

Noyes made 11 critical saves.

“Drew stood tall,” said Barton. “We got some stops on defense.”

For Scarborough, St. Germain scored three times, Delaware added two goals and Cassellius, Leadley, Pedersen and Rumelhart had one apiece.

Pedersen also had a pair of assists while Delaware finished with one.

Medeiros saved 10 shots.

“It’s a really hard loss to take because we fought hard and showed a lot of emotion, but we played well and did some very good things,” Red Storm coach Zach Barrett said. “We were down and came back. When we took the penalty, they ran a good man-up and we didn’t get our rotation in time and (Wyatt) took a nice shot. There really wasn’t anything we could do. We had our chances. We had the ball, but we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net and they did. We’ll see them again.”

Bright future

The teams will play again May 24 in Scarborough and both squads should be even stronger in three weeks time.

The Red Storm look to get back on track Friday when Kennebunk pays a visit. After playing at South Portland Tuesday of next week, Scarborough hosts Thornton Academy two days later.

“It was only our fourth game and the message to the guys is that we grow from here,” Barrett said. “It’s pretty fun to coach this group. This is a coach’s group. The kids want to be here and they want to play hard. They want to get better and they’re tight-knit. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish. We hope to get back on track against Kennebunk. We look forward to moving forward.”

Falmouth is home versus South Portland Saturday, then finally plays its first road game Tuesday of next week at Thornton Academy.

“We don’t think we’ve played our best ball yet,” Barton said. “We’ll see (Scarborough) again and they’ll be playing their best then. I’m excited to play South Portland Saturday, then we have our first road game at TA next week in enemy territory.

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.

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