WALES — The Oak Hill/Lisbon/Monmouth/St. Dom’s boys lacrosse team didn’t miss a beat in its season opener at home against the Northern Maine Moose.

With the Raiders hit hard with several players graduating from the 2022 team, new players stepped up in a 15-2 win Saturday afternoon at Stacen Doucette Field.

Attacker Adam Hinkley had six goals and midfielder Lukas Bergeron had three tallies.

“I like being with my guys; we work well together,” Hinkley said. “We had good chemistry today. We were moving the ball and not a lot of dropped passes, and we had good dodges. I am happy with the way my team played today.”

Despite the loss, it was a history-making day for the Moose — a co-op comprising players from Houlton, Hodgdon, Southern Aroostook and Greater Houlton Christian Academy — as they were playing their first varsity game in program history.

Northern Maine started its program in 2017 and it first started out as a youth and middle school program playing teams around the Bangor area.

“We have been developing them there and have a varsity team within (six) years of that — there’s great stuff happening,” Northern Maine coach Adam Simoes said.

Oak Hill coach Joe Hinkley said the first-year program was an unknown opponent coming into the season opener.

“It’s kind of nervous because you don’t know what to expect out of them,” Joe Hinkley said. “They had a couple of good players on the team. I think they will get better over the season. They will definitely get some victories this year.”

The Moose scored their first varsity goal when Micah Nadeau gave them a 1-0 lead early in the first quarter, as his shot went past Raiders goalie Nic Michaud (five saves).

“Here’s the great thing: The pass came from a veteran player and the goal was from a new freshman — he was pretty excited,” Simoes said. “Isaiah (Ervin) celebrated with him and that was the cool part, with the celebration from the veteran player.”

The Raiders got in a groove shortly after when Kaiden Delano tied the game.

Bergeron scored his first goal of the game 8:32 into the first period, with Delano picking up the assist. Bergeron later beat the buzzer with a long-distance shot to extend Oak Hill’s lead to 4-1.

“No, not really,” Bergeron said about knowing how much time was left in the quarter. “Not until they started to yell: ‘Shoot, shoot!’ Then I shot it and it went in.”

Liam Holland also scored in the opening frame for the Raiders.

Hinkley scored the Raiders’ first two goals of the second quarter for a 6-1 lead. Both goals came within the first two minutes.

Adam Hinkley said the attackers got together after the first quarter and figured out what they needed to do to get the ball in the net.

“We kind of had a little talk, and we were like, ‘Let’s just work on moving the ball more,’ and it ended up working out because we kind of got locked in,” Adam Hinkley said.

Bergeron recorded the hat trick near the five-minute mark of the second quarter. Delano recorded his second goal nearly nine minutes into the period and the lead was 8-1 Raiders.

Gage Spier opened the second-half scoring about two minutes into the third quarter by beating Moose goalie Collin Crouse (15 saves).

Northern Maine stopped Oak Hill’s run when Isaiah Ervin picked off a pass and shot it into the open net midway through the third period.

“Even though we were down, we still played our game and came back to put something together,” Simoes said.

Hinkley recorded his hat trick 7:46 into the third quarter. Delano picked up his third assist of four on the day.

“(He means) a lot, considering he’s a faceoff (man),” Joe Hinkley said. “Obviously, getting those goals and the assists — he’s the type of kid looking to pass. He’s not wanting to be the hero; he just wants to make sure the team wins at the end of the day.”

Hinkley also scored the next two goals for a 12-2 lead.

Spier notched his second goal of the quarter and Hinkley added another one for a 14-2 lead after three quarters.

Holland scored his second goal of the game in the fourth quarter for the final goal of the game.