GARDINER — The Gardiner boys lacrosse team made it a clean sweep, beating Morse for the third time this season. This time, the Tigers won 9-4 in an Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal game at Hoch Field on Wednesday afternoon.
Gardiner also beat Morse 11-4 on April 18 and 10-8 on May 4.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle,” Gardiner head coach K.C. Johnson said. “The first time we came out against them, we came out with poise and just dominated. Second time, it was 10-8 here, so I knew it was going to be a battle. (Morse) never quits.”
No. 2 Gardiner will play No. 3 Yarmouth in the semifinals Saturday. The Tigers have not seen the Clippers since last year’s playoffs, when the Tigers defeated Yarmouth 7-6 in overtime in the semifinals.
Against Morse on Wednesday, the Tigers (12-1) put the offensive pressure on early and finished with 31 shots on net.
“That was the game strategy,” said Gardiner attacker Keegan Smith, who scored a team-high three goals. “Posses the ball, keep it out of their hands, because (Morse) is pretty deadly when they have the ball.”
No. 7 Morse (6-7) kept the Tigers offense at bay for much of the first quarter, until Justin Lovely cut across the front of the net to rip a shot past Shipbuilders goalkeeper Alex Small to give Gardiner a 1-0 lead with two minutes left in the period.
Smith added two more goals in the second quarter and the Tigers led 3-1 at the half.
Gardiner quickly added two goals in the third quarter, one from Smith and another from Dalton Sargent, to push its lead to 5-1. While Morse had it’s finest quarter of play in the fourth, scoring three goals, the Tigers scored four of their own. Josh Moore had two, while Sargent and Tyler Jamison each had one.
Alex Paulus led Morse with three goals. Small allowed nine goals, but stopped 22 shots.
“Coming into to this game, I thought we’d have a little bit more tempo,” Morse head coach Jay Paulus said. “Our defense is flat. We had no ground balls on defense.”
The Tigers ended the game with a 48-24 advantage on ground balls.
Dave Dyer — 621-5639
ddyer@centralmaine.com
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