GIRLS’ LACROSSE

At this point in the season, the Raider girls’ lacrosse notched a victory against Wells and dropped six losses against Class B South.

“Our record does not reflect the tremendous amount of improvement the girls have achieved both as individuals and as a team,” first-year FA Coach Julia Taylor reported. “The team has been quite competitive in games against very well established Maine lacrosse programs. Considering that this is very much a growth and learning year for us, I am so proud of what they have achieved. We focus on continuous improvement and have our sights set on a few more wins before the season ends.”

BOYS’ LACROSSE

In a battle between the Western Maine Conference and the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference in boys’ lacrosse the WMC comes out on top. The Raiders and the Cougars of Mt. Blue High played under bright sunny skies in Farmington, with both teams coming into the contest with identical 4-2 records. Fryeburg Academy would pull away late for the 9-2 victory, improving to 5-2 on the year. Mt. Blue dropped to a respectable 4-3 on the year.

The really story of this game was the play of both goalies. Each goalie was put into one-on-one situations only to have the offensive player get shut out. Senior Alex Gilbert for Mt. Blue made 37 saves on the afternoon. Not to be out done, FA freshman Yukon King kept Mt. Blue off the scoreboard for 42 minutes and made 11 saves. Gilbert had to make 29 saves in the first half alone, yet Fryeburg Academy was only able to sneak two goalies by him. The Raiders out shot the Cougars 50 to 13 for the game.

For eight minutes of the first quarter, both teams battled back and forth. Finally with 4:47 on the clock, Jeremiah Schrader broke the ice for Fryeburg Academy to give them the 1-0. The quarter would end with the Raiders in the lead 1-0.

In the second quarter, it was more of the same. Gilbert kept frustrating the Raiders by stopping numerous shots from all angles. With 9:27 showing on the clock, Jared Chisari found Jeremiah Schrader alone on the top of the box for a one timer by Gilbert. Both teams would be held scoreless the remainder of the half.

In the second half, Fryeburg Academy continued to put pressure on Mt. Blue and scored four goals in the quarter to take comfortable lead. The first goal coming at 10:35, when Schrader fed Evan Caracciolo near the crease. The Raiders scored two man-up goals next. The first coming at 9:19 when senior Markus Schneider ripped one past Gilbert. In another man-up situation, Caracciolo received a feed from Schneider to score with 3:45 to play in the quarter giving the Raiders the 5-0 lead. 44 seconds later, senior attack Jake Maidment got into the scoring column with a nice roll dodge to the cage to increase the Raider lead to 6-0 after three quarters.

In the fourth, Fryeburg Academy increased the lead to 7-0 when Schneider found the back of the net on a feed from Jeremiah Schrader with 9:29 to play.

Mt. Blue broke up Fryeburg Academy’s attempt for a shutout with 6:25 to play when Joe Bowering found Liam Welch, who would beat Raider goalie Yukon King.

The Raiders answered that goal with two more of their own — one coming at 5:10 when Jake Maidment received a nice pass from Evan Caracciolo. With 2:19 to play, first-year player Nick Landano beat Gilbert high on an assist from Evan Caracciolo. Mt. Blue scored again with 40 seconds to play. This time Reed Wells beat King to make the score 9-2.

The Battle of Route 302 goes to the Raiders from Fryeburg Academy

In boy’s lacrosse action played in Naples on Wednesday afternoon, the visiting Raiders from Fryeburg Academy edged the Lakers 10-8 in a closely contested game.

When the two local rivals play each other, you can throw out the records and expect a battle. This game didn’t disappoint. With the win the Raiders improve to 4-2 on the year while the Lakers dropped to 0-6.

For nearly five minutes of the first quarter, neither team could get on the scoreboard. With 7:24 remaining Jeremiah Schrader would score his first goal of five for the game to give Fryeburg Academy the lead 1-0. A minute later, LR’s Mason Laplante would score his first of five for the game as well to tie the score at 1. The Raiders would score the next two goals to end the first quarter with a 3-1 lead. Caleb Bowles found Evan Caracciolo open on the wing to give Fryeburg Academy a 2-1 lead with 2:40 showing on the clock. Jeremiah Schrader scored in a man-up situation to give the Raiders the 3-1 lead.

Caleb Emery for the Lakers cut the Raider lead to 3-2 when he scored with 8:29 remaining in the half. Fryeburg Academy widened the lead to 5-2 on goals from Caleb Eklund and Jeremiah Schrader. With 1:21 left before halftime, LR’s Laplante scored on a nice roll dodge to make the score 5-3 at the half.

The Lakers would come out of halftime and score the first two goals to tie the contest at 5. Villi Kolodzeiski and Laplante scored for Lake Region.

Fryeburg Academy scored the next three goals to up their lead to 8-5 in the third quarter. Jared Chisari scored of a faceoff with 5:37 showing on the clock. Evan Caracciolo added a goal at 4:07 followed at 3:09 with Schrader finding the back of the net.

Laplante stopped the Raider run when he scored with 8 seconds left in the quarter.

Jake Maidment upped the lead for Fryeburg Academy with 9:25 left to 9-6. The lead seemed safe for the Raiders. However, the Lakers were not going to go away in this rival game.

Laplante scored his fifth goal (assisted by Nick Lepage) with 8:19 showing on the clock in a man up situation and cut the FA lead to 9-7. Zeke Tocci found a wide-open Caleb Emery on the left side of the crease for Lake Region to make the score 9-8 with 7:32 still remaining on the clock.

With 6:38 left, Evan Caracciolo of Fryeburg Academy passed to Jeremiah Schrader, who made a great move to beat Laker netminder Taylor Davis to make the score 10-8.

Both teams had scoring chances coming down the stretch, but goalies for both teams — Davis for Lake Region (13 saves) and freshman Yukon King of Fryeburg (21 saves) — would come up with big saves.

Shots on Goal: FA 23, Lakers 45.

Up next: The Raiders host North Yarmouth Academy on Friday at 4 p.m. and York on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Lake Region travels to Cape Elizabeth on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game, and hosts Freeport on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

BOYS’ TENNIS

The Fryeburg Academy boys’ tennis team had tough matches this week against Kent’s Hill and Hyde schools.

Harry Yan at Number 1 went 3-6, 6-7 and 7/2 (tiebreaker) at Kent’s Hill. He went 6-4, 0-6, and 0-6 against Hyde.

At Number 2, Kevin Kim went 3-6, 3-6 against Kent’s Hill and 1-6, 1-6 against Hyde.

At Number 3 against Kent’s Hill, Alex Liu went 0-6, 0-6. At Number 3 against Hyde, Jake Zhu went 1-6, 1-6.

Number 1 doubles Jason Huang and Jake Zhu went 1-6, 1-6 against Kent’s Hill. Number 1 doubles Alex Liu and Jason Huang went 1-6, 1-6 against Hyde.

Number 2 doubles Matthew Liu and Allen Ma went 0-6, 1-6 against Kent’s Hill and 1-6, 1-6 against Hyde.

“This has certainly been a rebuilding season for the Fryeburg boys,” Raider Coach Dick Valliere said. “The team has come a long way from the first practice and continue to work hard to improve their games. Their understanding of the game along with figuring out how to finish tight games is a work in progress.”

GIRLS’ TENNIS

The FA girls’ tennis team key this season was their heart.

“They all had a lot of heart. Every player on the team had great team sportsmanship to each other and to their opponents. They had a positive and winning attitudes. I think the girls learned what it really means to persevere,” FA Coach Chris Chaffee said. “No matter how many times they fell, they learned to pick themselves up and find the will to keep going. That is an important thing in life to learn you are going to make mistakes and you are going to lose, but it’s about the struggle. In struggle, it reveals your character to either quit or to keep moving forward. You are stronger when you can get up learn and keep fighting and grinding. By having the vision of not giving up and by showing that your best effort is what defines you.”

Coach Chaffee added, “The girls have dedication and spirit because they remained positive and eager to come to practice and to come to every match with the mentality of believing they have the will to improve and are going to prepare well. As a coach, those qualities are what makes winners and it is the qualities I have always believed in.”

The FA girls finished the season with a record of 2-4, losing their last two matches of the season. In a doubleheader to Kent’s Hill Monday, the Raiders dropped 4-1 and 4-1 decisions.

Emily Grzyb was the only one who won her second singles match twice.

“We played the two best teams the toward the end of the season and it was a good experience and challenge that they looked forward to facing,” Coach Chaffee said. “Obviously, we would have liked to win those matches, but the girls did their best and that is all I can ask of them.”

BOYS ULTIMATE

On Wednesday, May 11, the Raider boys’ Ultimate team had a league match against Cumberland. The Raiders dropped a 10-9 decision to Cumberland.

“While this was a disappointing result, it was one of the best reactions I’ve seen from a losing FA squad in a long time,” Coach Chris Strahler said. “They had the right mindset coming out of the game. The players knew they had played a good game, they knew their opponents had played a good game, and they were proud of the result. It was a great example of good sportsmanship in practice.”

Coach Strahler and Assistant Coach Gregg Downing had a plan in place to get a larger rotation of players in action in the game, keeping top players fresh when they were playing. The strategy worked fairly well and everyone on the team was able to contribute positive things. Some newer players on the team were able to test their knowledge of zone positions they had worked on in practice.

“As we headed into the second half, part of our strategy was to tire out the other team, but making them play against a man defense.  This would work to our advantage as we had a deeper line of players,” Coach Strahler said. “Our offense clicked well and we often got the disc moving from our handler line to our cutter line, but it often stalled at that point, having to be reset to handlers.”

Ben Darling was back after and early season injury, playing with a cast on his right (dominant) hand. While this didn’t greatly affect his catching, Ben did have to throw left handed, making the continuation throws to his fellow cutters much harder to make.

“One thing our offense needs to work on if Ben is going to play without his dominant hand is the reset to a handler after his catches,” Coach Strahler said.

Late in the game Fryeburg was up 9-8 and Cumberland was receiving, but playing upwind.  That was the Raiders’ chance to stop them and put the game away before time was up.  Unfortunately, FA allowed the upwind score, meaning the Raiders would be playing one more point to break the tie.

“This also meant that we would be playing up wind. We had several opportunities during the last point, but Cumberland threw a new defense that we didn’t react to well, shutting us down near the end zone,” the coach said. “Although we continually stopped them from scoring, eventually they punched one into the end zone for the win.” On May 14-15, the boys Ultimate team played in the Southern Maine Invitational. It was hosted by Maine Ultimate and there were 16 boys youth teams playing. Fryeburg went into the tournament seeded seventh out of 16 and ended the weekend in sixth place after a 1-5 record.

“We came away from the weekend a stronger team than we were, gaining valuable team chemistry and playing in tough conditions that we often don’t experience in Fryeburg,” Coach Strahler said. “This weekend’s results will set the tone for the remaining two weeks of the season. With three more regular season games and one more tournament before the state tournament, we still have a lot of valuable experience to gain from game situations.”

SOFTBALL

Raiders 11, Poland 2: The Raiders traveled for a road game at Poland last Saturday afternoon. It started out with Poland scoring 1 in the first. But in the third inning, Fryeburg took the lead with three runs. It started by Mackenzie Buzzell getting a double to start things off. It didn’t take long for her to score after Julia Quinn knocked   a RBI single. After Julia stole second, Lexi L’Heureux-Carland added a RBI single.

The Raiders got busy again in the fifth. With runners on base, the team unloaded four consecutive hits which lead to a five-run outburst. L’Heureux-Carland, Nicole Bennett and Makayla Cooper each had RBI singles and Brooke Juneau added a two-run double. The Raiders tacked on three more runs to close out the 11-2 victory.

Nicole Bennett pitched a gem by allowing 2 runs on 5 hits to go with 8 strikeouts.

Buzzell was 4-for-5 with 3 runs scored, Julia Quinn was 2-for-4 with 3 runs scored. Makayla Cooper was 3-for-4 and added 3 RBI, and L’Heureux-Carland finished the day 2-for-5 with 3 runs scored and with 2 RBI.

Raiders 12, Freeport 0: Fryeburg would return home for a game with Freeport. The Raiders struck early with a two-run triple by Makayla Cooper, which was just the beginning of a big afternoon for the Fryeburg catcher.

In the fourth inning, Fryeburg did the most damage with a six-run explosion highlighted again by Cooper with a two-run double and a two-run homerun shot by freshman Brooke Juneau.

Cooper finished the day going 4-for-4 and knocking in six runs.

Raiders 2, Traip Academy 1: Fryeburg was home again to face a pesky Traip team, and the game lived up to being a tightly played game.

In the beginning, it looked like the Raiders would have a big day at the plate as Mackenzie Buzzell lead off the bottom of the first inning with a solo homerun over the left center field fence.

Fryeburg added a second run in the second inning when Faith Pelkie lead off with a single and then scored on a Buzzell groundout.

The bats went cold, but pitcher Nicole Bennett and good Raider defense took over. Traip scored a run in the sixth inning and had runners at second and third with just one out in the seventh, but Bennett shut the door for the win. She allowed six hits and struck out 11 batters.

Greely 6, Raiders 1: In a showdown with Greely on Monday, the game lived up to the hype for five innings and then things seemed to slip away from the Raiders in the sixth inning.

A pitchers’ duel with Kesley Currier from Greely and Nicole Bennett of Fryeburg kept the game scoreless through three innings.

In the fourth inning, the Raiders broke through to score a run when Makayla Cooper singled and went to third on a error by the centerfielder after the hit. Faith Pelkie battled her way vs. Currier and got a deep enough sacrifice fly to right to score Cooper.

Greely took advantage of three errors in the sixth and had four different timely hits in the inning to put the Rangers up 6-1.

There would be no rally magic for the Raiders as they fell to 7-4. In Heal Ratings released Tuesday, the Raiders find themselves in fifth place behind York, Cape, Greely and Oak Hill.

Coach Fred Apt has been real pleased with the work of junior Nicole Bennett on the mound. She has been hitting spots and really working on making things tough on the opponents and been very tough to face. The hitting has been a hot or cold, or up and down ride for the team, and that’s something the team would like to be more consistent, thus making them more dangerous come June.

Up next: The Raiders host Sacopee Valley at 4 p.m. on Friday, travel to Gray-New Gloucester on Wednesday and host Old Orchard Beach next Thursday at 4 p.m.

Brea Condor

TRACK & FIELD

Last Tuesday, May 10, the Raiders traveled to Kennett for a three-school meet with Kennett and Kingswood. Syke Collins and Orie Inirio ran very well in the 100m and 200m dashes. Skye recorded a 12.80 in the 100m and a 27.00 in the 200m while Orie ran 13.00 and 27.80.

“These two are coming together at just the right time as we move into championship season,” Coach Kevin McDonald said.

Anna Lastra set another school record in the 800m with a time of 2:22.70. Emily Carty was second in 2:30.90

Irina Norkin won the mile in 5:53.30. This was Irina’s first outright win. “She works very hard at practice and its nice to see her succeed,” Coach McDonald noted.

The boys had Evan Wadsworth running 11.70 and 24.00 in the 100m and 200m. Fast times for Evan as he too is coming together at just the right time. Christian Bedell ran 55.60 in the 400m. Christian has been working on his speed to lower his 800m time.

The Raiders hosted Cape, Gray-NG and Old Orchard Beach on Frioday. FA finished third on both the girls’ and boys’ side. Skye continued her fast times winning the 100m in 13.34 and finishing second in the 200m in 27.64.

Olivia Pelkie and Emily McDermith ran very well in the 400m, finishing first and third respectively — both running provisional times for States.

Anna Lastra ran to a first place finish in the two-mile with a fine time of 11:33.32.

Alfie Walker ran a very promising mile recording a time of 5:06.91. Only a freshman, Alfie is having great success and may have found his event to focus on.

The day belonged to the Carty family as Emily won the 800m and the mile and Patrick won the mile and came second in the two-mile. His two-mile saw a 17 second improvement.

“Just an unbelievable race,” Coach McDonald said. “Patrick is the boys’ captain and as fine a student athlete any coach could ask for. Emily — only a sophomore — also is a great kid with a very bright future in athletics.”

The race walk saw Brian Ward/Sims cruise to a win with a time of 8:16.16. Brian is chasing the school record, which so far has been just out reach. May be this Friday the record will fall.

Up next: The Raiders travel to Sacopee Valley for a 3:30 p.m. meet on Friday with the Hawks, Lakers and Waynflete Flyers.