WHS boys' soccer turns in solid effort against Gorham

By Matt Pascarella

The Windham varsity and junior varsity boys’ soccer teams went head-to-head at home on Saturday, Oct. 2 against rival Gorham in a game where both Windham teams played hard but ultimately came up short.

Windham varsity boys' soccer player Tyler Johnsen pushes
back against a Gorham defender as he races to the ball during
Windham's home game against Gorham on Oct. 2. Gorham
defeated Windham, 4-0. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

Gorham’s varsity defeated Windham 4-0 and the Eagles’ fell to Gorham 3-0 in the JV game.

Although these were two losses, the Eagles will pick themselves up, learn from this and return to the field ready to go. There is plenty of season left for both teams to show they are even stronger because of these losses.

Varsity

While Gorham found the back of the net twice almost immediately into the start of the game, Windham worked to keep their heads up and kept fighting.

After those Gorham goals early on, the Rams had an opportunity to take a couple shots at an unprotected goal and Windham junior Owen Weatherby blocked them both.

Goalie and Windham senior Colby Connolly had save after save throughout the game.

Windham did go after the ball and took shots on goal in the first half but could not put the ball in the net. At the half, Gorham was up 3-0.

“We had a couple chances, we tried to stay motivated, but I guess we couldn’t really pull it together as a team,” said Windham junior Tyler Johnsen. “We need to come out stronger, faster, better and not get down on each other.”

Johnsen added Gorham’s two goals at the start was discouraging for Windham, but they tried to stick with it.

Windham fought hard in the second half and their defense did keep Gorham’s goals to a lower number but could not get ahead at game’s end.

“We were [seven wins, zero losses] coming into the game,” said Windham varsity boys’ soccer coach Ben Schulz. “We still think we’re a good team, we just got punched in the mouth by another good team. You have games like this ... the most important thing for us is recognize we’ve got work to do and come back ready to go.”

Junior Varsity

Windham started with good passing and had strong defense that held off Gorham for most of the first half.

With about 12 minutes left in the half Gorham fired two in the net consecutively and led at halftime.

Windham kept going. They worked hard to be first to balls. They pressured. Windham goalie and junior Sam Plummer had several nice saves.

Windham freshman Levi Hayman took a shot at goal. So did Windham sophomore Jacob Gagne. The Eagles fought until the end.

“We had good passing and good communicating,” said Windham freshman Matteo Sandora. “We couldn’t really get the ball past [Gorham].”

Windham JV coach Nick Dubay said Windham came ready to play, though a little flat early on. Dubay said it took them a little bit, but the JV team was able to settle in. Gorham got the upper hand.

Dubay said the team can learn to focus on the game more seriously, so they’re ready when the pressure comes. <