BENNINGTON - After a nightmare first half against Burr and Burton Academy on Thursday, the Mount Anthony Union High School boys soccer bounced back with an absolute dream start against Arlington Memorial High School on Saturday.

And, better yet, they carried it out to the final whistle.

The Patriots lit up the scoreboard five times in the first half against the Eagles as they cruised to a 6-0 victory in the consolation game of the 44th Annual John James Tournament on Saturday at Spinelli Field.

Sophomore forward Marcus LaFlamme dialed up two goals and two assists and goalkeeper Patrick Cody made five saves to give the Patriots (2-1-1) their first clean sheet of the season.

"That was the first game so far this year and that we came out and played well to start," MAU coach Mike Molloy said. "We've had to face adversity in all three games we had - we were down in all of them - and this is the first time we didn't.

"This was, I think, the first time we played a complete game."

Arlington (2-2), which took Brattleboro to overtime in the first game of the tournament, was unable to rekindle the same sort of performance against MAU, falling behind 3-0 within 15 minutes.

Dylan Prazak got the Patriots on the board in the third minute.

Collecting a deflection in the top of the penalty area, the junior midfielder placed his left-footed strike inside the right post, just beyond the reach of diving Arlington goalkeeper DJ Jennings (10 saves).

LaFlamme

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then pushed the lead to 3-0 with goals three minutes apart, using bursts of speed chase down through-balls from Brad Anair and Andrew Slade, respectively, and give the hosts a 3-0 lead with 25:11 left in the half.

After Ethan Anderson made it 4-0 six minutes shy of the break, LaFlamme found Austin Dority with a cross from the left for the fifth tally. He added his second assist with two minutes left, crossing for Cameron Bow to set the final margin.

"That's the way I want him to play all the time," Molloy said of LaFlamme. "Hopefully he continues to play with that same sort of confidence."

The Eagles, meanwhile, were unable to break loose behind the MAU back line, which did well to limit chances for forwards Fred Pickering and John Esposito.

With the ball, the Patriots eliminated many of the mistakes that cost them against BBA in the opening round. Their strong first-half performance proved as much.

"We were trying to pass it through the midfield," Dority said. "We were going real direct [against BBA], straight up and down, but I think [today] we had good passing and composure and confidence."