ASHLAND – The Ashland boys and girls soccer teams are, for the most part, a young and inexperienced bunch. But that didn’t matter to two underclassmen who made the difference in Thursday’s games against Wisdom of St. Agatha at the high school fields.

Sophomore Kenny Lewin scored two goals in the Hornet boys’ 5-1 win over the Pioneers, while freshman Caitlin Sherman recorded the only goal of the game in the Ashland girls’ 1-0 victory.

Lewin tallied the first and last of Ashland’s five goals, with three other players scoring in between.

First-year Ashland head coach Glen Condon was pleased to see the offense spread around. He is hopeful Lewin’s two-goal game will give the younger players more confidence. The Hornets (2-2) lost seven starters to graduation last year and had four sophomores and two freshmen in the starting lineup Thursday.

“[Lewin is] finally learning to anticipate being in the right place,” Condon said. “Kenny and [sophomore forward] Allan O’Clair both had a lot of opportunities and they’re starting to come around. They just have to learn to believe. They get frustrated so easy and today was a big boost.”

James Dyer followed up Lewin’s first goal with a cross into the penalty area that slipped through Wisdom goalie Kenny Corriveau’s hands and rolled into the back of the net. Brock Bessey scored with 7:33 left in the half to make it 3-0.

Still, the game didn’t appear totally in hand until Bruce Oakes hit a hard shot on the ground from about 15 yards out for Ashland’s fourth goal.

“The three goals in the first half wasn’t that big of a deal but once we got one in the second half it really helped us,” said senior sweeper Eric Hamm.

Ashland goalie Randy Junkins made seven saves on 15 shots.

The Pioneers (2-6) had a number of chances when Andrew Gervais made runs up the sidelines and tried to cross the ball in front of the goal. But the rest of the offense had yet to catch up, so often there was no one there to field his passes.

“We just had a strong defensive effort from everyone,” Hamm said.

Gervais scored the only goal for Wisdom with about 20 minutes left in the game. It was his 10th goal of the year.

Corriveau, who had trouble handling the ball and let in two goals off his hands, stopped seven of the 20 shots he faced and wasn’t helped by a defense that didn’t tightly mark the Ashland forwards. It was something Wisdom coach Vern Labbe talked about with his team at halftime.

“They backpedaled instead of challenging the ball,” Labbe said. “We’ve been going over that, but I lost my whole defense and these are all first-year players on defense. I switched people around to try to find the right combination … but [Ashland] was getting free shots at the [18-yard line] and we were backpedaling. And if you’re giving up free shots at the 18, it’s history. You’re done.”

In the girls game, Sherman scored her goal when she fielded a rolling ball about 25 yards out and booted it at the goal. The wind helped carry the ball over goalie Shannon Berube with 29:06 left in the game.

“We’re young, but a freshman came through and scored the goal,” said Ashland coach Bill Nemer, who is in his 20th season. “We played well defensively against the wind and held them scoreless. We just kept shooting the ball and kept pushing.”

It’s important for the Hornets to find other sources of offense while senior striker Amanda Martin works her way back from a foot problem and as two junior wings are out with injuries. Nemer has freshmen playing in their places (Martin started the game).

“If I had my experienced kids back in there I think we’d be scoring some more goals,” he said. “My freshmen are good but they’re just not used to moving at the right times to score.”

The Hornets go to 3-1, which Nemer said is their best start in several years.

Ashland’s Kim Oakes stopped seven of the eight shots she faced. Berube made nine saves on 17 shots for Wisdom (4-4).