SACO — The past two seasons, the Thornton Academy boys lacrosse team made it to the Western Maine Class A final. Both times, it lost to Scarborough. So it’s only fitting that Trojans end their regular season by playing the Red Storm with playoff seeding and momentum up for grabs.
The Golden Trojans sit at 9-2, a place they hoped to be but that few others predicted.
“I think we’re doing a lot better than people thought, as usual. We’re always usually the underdog, and we really do well with that title,” said junior Parker Roma.
They will be considered underdogs once more when they face Scarborough Wednesday. The Red Storm are 10-1 and haven’t lost to a conference opponent all season.
“I think mentally it is a big game. We have to at some point get over that hurdle,” said coach Ryan Hersey.
Roma said he thinks now is the time to clear that hurdle.
“We can’t wait. Just going in there every year is always a big game. They’ve really stuck it to us, so we’re ready to go out there and show that we’re just as good as them, and we’re ready to play.”
In both losses this season, Thornton has gotten off to a slow start, something Hersey said they need to avoid against the Storm.
“What has really killed us the last two years is the first quarter,” said Hersey. “To come out strong and to have a good first quarter against them would be very nice.”
The key for the Trojans might be to wake the offense up early, as the defense has been stingy all year. The Trojans have allowed more than four goals only three times this season.
Much of that can be attributed to the stellar play of goalie Brett Levasseur.
“I can go down through the list and say, if we had any other goalie between the pipes, our record would probably be under .500. That’s how big he’s been this year,” said Hersey. “He time and time again just comes up with saves that I don’t think anybody else in our conference is going to come up with.”
“He’s really bailed us out of a lot of big situations. He’s been awesome. We wouldn’t be where we are without him,” said Roma.
The success of the team this season has been a testament to the vision that Hersey had for the program when he was named head coach three years ago.
“When I took over we saw so much potential. Thornton is a great place, great athletes. We’ve always had this kind of idea that some day, we want Thornton to be the best team in the state of Maine,” said Hersey. “We didn’t want the kids to be happy with being a top 10 team. We don’t want to be happy with being a top 10 team in the state of Maine. We want to be the team in Class A.”
While the Trojans have their sights set on Scarborough as they finish up the regular season, it’s just a small part of a bigger goal that the team has. An appearance in the conference final will simply not be good enough for Thornton Academy this year.
“I feel like this year we have an opportunity to play with any team in the state,” Hersey said.
— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323.
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