Falcons dropped by St. Dom's in lacrosse

RUMFORD -- The Saint Dominics boys' lacrosse team simply displayed too much effort at sun-drenched Hosmer Field Athletic Complex Saturday afternoon over Mountain Valley.

It proved to be the Troy Haefele show, who scored six goals and added three assists as the slick Saints remained unbeaten with a 14-1 win over the Falcons.

Saint Doms established their superior triangle passing game and rotation around the perimeter had the Falcon defense scrambling.

Saint Doms (2-0) was dominant and had a balanced offense with two goals each by Nick Hatfield, Kenton Ernst and Will Desmarais, who peppered the offensive zone with 29 shots and maintained pressure on trick Falcon goalie Coyote Freeman (13 saves).

"I have to credit my guys because they never quit," said MV coach Rick White, referring to the roughly played game. "Especially the performance by Coyote Freeman, who was very busy but maintained his composure. That is a pretty good job by someone who had never played goalie before."

Mountain Valley (1-2) had tied the game 1-1 on a goal by Jon Petrie on a lead pass by Nate Nicols with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. The Falcons have fallen on hard times, since upsetting Mount Blue 15-5 in the season opener. Kyle Duguay scored six goals and Austin Glover added a hat trick.

"It's difficult to get things going with your best players on the bench," said White. Duguay sat for a majority of the game with an injured bicep after being slashed by Tom Applegate. "We'll be all right. We just need to work on a few things like securing ground balls and positioning. We needed to stop (Haefele) from going to the left because he shoots from the left, but we couldn't stop him."

Saint Doms responded with eight goals to lead 9-1 at halftime. A turning point occurred when the Falcons was on a power play in the second quarter, but Cody Rodrigue (two saves) stopped shots by Glover. The Saints strong transition game scored a short-handed goal.

"This was a good game for us," said Troy Haefele, who has a scholarship to play lacrosse at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York next fall. "Our younger kids got a lot of playing time and we will need them later on this season."