CLEAR LOOK AT THE SHOT — Lake Region goalie Jarid Pierce clearly sees a shot by a Fryeburg Academy player during the team's 6-1 victory. On the LR defense were Drew Spaulding #20 and Erik Christensen #18. (Photos by Greg Van Vliet/www.lakeregionphotography.com)

VARSITY BOYS' LACROSSE

Balanced scoring and a stingy defense powered Lake Region to a 6-1 varsity boys’ lacrosse win in the season opener against Fryeburg Academy on Monday.

Laker Drew Shane started out the scoring with  a dodge down the right side. He switched to his left hand and shot low past the Raider goalie.

Fryeburg’s Michael Legoff tied the game in the second quarter to make it 1-1 at half.

Lake Region took advantage of several Fryeburg Academy penalties in the second half, scoring several goals with the man advantage.  Dakota Russo started off the second half with a wraparound from behind the goal.  Soon afterwards, Zach Tidd scored a goal with another hard low shot to make it 3-1.

In the fourth quarter, Russo and Shane each scored one more goal, and Ansel Critchfield tallied to give the Lakers a 6-1 lead.

“Our strongest showing of the game came from our four defenders and two goalies,” LR Coach Don White said.

The defense was led by Lewis Morton, Erik Christensen, David Cosgrove and Drew Spaulding.

“They did an excellent job shutting down Fryeburg’s chances near the goal and starting our offense on fast breaks and quick transitions,” Coach White said.

Both LR goalies — Jarid Pierce and Tyler Laplante — made some “great” saves, the coach said.

“Both of them seemed to really see the ball well throughout the game,” Coach White added.

Pierce and Laplante combined for 10 saves.

Up next: The Lakers host three games next week— Westbrook on Monday, April 29 at 4:15 p.m.; Falmouth on Wednesday at 4 p.m.; and Wells on Friday at 4 p.m.

VARSITY BASEBALL

GRAY — What Coach Randy Heath saw in his club’s season opener is what he hopes his Lake Region baseball team will eventually evolve into.

Gray-New Gloucester “came out ready with a lot of energy and live bats,” Coach Heath said, as the Patriots dumped the Lakers 11-4 in the season opener on Monday.

“Baseball is a game where you can’t force the issues and that’s what we did,” Coach Heath said. “Our at bats were rushed and fielding was okay. Really, it came down to G-NG beating us at are our style of play.”

Kyle Nielson had two RBI and recorded the win for the Patriots (1-2). The Lakers were held to just four hits, including a pair by freshman Jordan Williams and a double by junior Cody Gibbons.

Justin McKenna had a pair of doubles and two runs scored for the Patriots.

Up next: The Lakers travel to Fryeburg Academy this Friday, host Poland on Monday and head to Wells next Friday, May 3. All games are at 4 p.m.

VARSITY SOFTBALL

GRAY — With a young team and limited practice time on their home field prior to the start of the season, Lake Region Coach J.R. Warren saw several positives following Monday’s 9-4 loss to Gray-New Gloucester.

First, the Lakers managed seven hits, including several hard hit drives, which the Patriot centerfielder managed to track down.

“Their center fielder made three incredible plays during the game on very hard hit balls,” Coach Warren said. “We made some early season mental mistakes and errors, but again overall had a pretty good game.  I was not disappointed for the first game of the season. We only got on our field the Tuesday of vacation.  The first day, we didn’t even have bases.  We also had a couple of players still on vacation. I feel when everyone is back and we get back to normal positions we should be fine.”

Zoey Adams’ two-run homer in the third inning gave Gray-New Gloucester (3-0) its winning margin. Samantha Wilkins provided an RBI single in the first as the Patriots scratched out three runs.

Patriot pitcher Maria Valente tripled in the third and Adams followed with a towering homer to center field for a 5-0 lead. Wilkins added two more RBI in the fifth with another triple.

Valente struck out two and walked none.

Sophomore Ashley Clark took the loss for the Lakers.

Up next: The Lakers travel to Fryeburg on Friday, host Poland on Monday and head to Wells next Friday, May 3.

TRACK & FIELD

FALMOUTH — A gusting wind failed to keep Kayla Gray, Kate Hall and Molly Hook from qualifying for the State Meet on opening day of the track & field season.

Gray set a personal record in the 1600-meter racewalk with a time of 8 minutes, 37.56 seconds at the Tom Foley Invitational held at Falmouth High School last Tuesday. Last year, Gray posted an 11:06 at this meet.

Hall turned in a long jump of 17-feet 10-inches, a personal record.

“That’s a great jump for so early in the season,” Laker Coach Mark Snow said.

Hall posted a state qualifying mark of 12.52 in the 100 meters and a 26.89 in the 200 meters — both first place finishes.

Hook threw the discus 84-feet 8-inches. Last year, she posted an 84-foot toss. In the shot put, Hook recorded a 23-feet 5.5-inch effort. She fired the javelin 77 feet, a six-foot improvement over a year ago.

In other events,

• Coach Snow felt Zsofi Kaiser and Hannah Parsons recorded “great times” in the 100 and 200 meters despite a big head wind. In the 100, Kaiser finished in 14.67 and Parsons at 16.06. In the 200, Kaiser ran a 30.76 and Parsons a 33.84.

• Audrey Blais ran a well-paced 1600 meters, posting 400 splits of 1:30, 1:42, 1:41 and 1:31 to finish at 6:24.33. “Smart running to pace herself early, then storm to the victory in her heat,” Coach Snow said.

• Mark MacDougall set a personal record in the javelin with a toss of 127-feet 3-inches. “Great sign to throw a PR in the first meet,” Coach Snow said.

• Marcus Devoe was just 16 inches shy of the state qualifying mark in the triple jump with a 36-foot, 2.5-inch effort.

Up next: The Lakers travel to Traip Academy in Kittery this Friday. Meet time is 3:30 p.m.