The games were first of the season for Saranac Lake teams and the third on the schedule for the Blue Bombers, who started their preseason practices a week before the Red Storm.

The girls teams played in Lake Placid and the Blue Bombers triumphed 2-0 on their home pitch as Dariana Patterson and Emma Adragna netted second-half tallies in the victory. Meanwhile, the boys squads battled to a 2-2 draw 10 miles away on the Red Storm’s home turf at Schroeter’s Field.

In the girls match, Saranac Lake put up a fight before Lake Placid pulled away after intermission. Natalie Tavares assisted on both scores for the Blue Bombers, who improved to 2-1 and will be at home again Friday to host Saranac Central starting at 4 p.m.

Blue Bombers girls coach Brendan Gotham said he was impressed with the play of Saranac Lake, especially its defense and the effort turned in by goalkeeper Amya Hurteau, who finished with 11 saves, including a stop on a penalty kick.

Adrian Hayden advances the ball for Saranac Lake while Tristan Spotts pursues for Lake Placid during the second half of Wednesday’s match at Schroeter’s Field. Also pictured for the Blue Bombers is Sam Le. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

“They played really well in the first half and their goalie had a great game,” Gotham said. “We played well in spurts, and I think we were really able to put more pressure on after Dari scored. It was just a classic Saranac Lake-Lake Placid game.”

At Schroeter’s Field, the match was a tale of two halves followed by a scoreless overtime, and it was an exciting contest. The Red Storm scored twice before halftime, both on goals from Bailey Bartholomew, to take a 2-0 edge. The Blue Bombers evened the contest after intermission on goals by Joose Kahkonen and Alex Wright.

Playing in his first high school soccer game ever, junior Nate McCarthy had a solid performance in nets for the Red Storm and finished with seven saves. Both squads finished with 10 shots. Jack Armstrong tended the nets for Lake Placid.

After rallying from a two-goal deficit to tie, the Blue Bombers nearly pulled out the comeback victory but came up short when sophomore Drew Ferebee rattled a blast off the crossbar that hit the ground after nearly going in the net with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.

Bartholomew’s first goal came seven minutes into the game off an assist from Colter Cheney-Seymour, and he then pushed Saranac Lake’s edge to 2-0 with 14 minutes remaining in the opening half with Adrian Hayden assisting.

On both Lake Placid goals, Kahkonen Wright used their speed to get past Saranac Lake’s defense to basically walk in all alone on McCarthy for easy tallies.

The teams played a scoreless five-minute overtime.

Saranac Lake coach Brad Rafferty, who wore the Blue Bombers colors during his high school days, said despite seeing his Red Storm give up a two-goal lead, he was pleased with the team’s effort in its first match of the season.

“We came out super strong. We had an excellent first half,” Rafferty said. “We really missed out on some opportunities to bury them early. If you go up 3-0, that could have been really deflating. I’m pretty happy with our start. Bailey and Colter were really impressive up front. They are a threat anytime they have the ball.”

Lake Placid’s boys now have a pair of losses and a tie and next play Friday on the road against Saranac Central starting at 6 p.m.

“I think 2-2 was a fair result,” Lake Placid coach Stuart Hemsley said. “That to me was good for my team after two defeats to come back from two goals down. I was talking to (assistant) coach (Brian) Brandes and we decided we really learned a lot about our team in the second half.”

Hemsley said he was especially pleased with the defensive effort turned in by Tristan Spotts.

Saranac Lake next travels to face AuSable Valley on Saturday with the opening kickoff slated for 11 a.m.