Windham boys’ soccer dominates Gorham in 4-1 win

By Matt Pascarella

Windham High’s varsity boys’ soccer team remained undefeated as they rolled past Gorham with a massive 4-1 victory at home on Thursday, Sept. 7. The Eagles continued to progress as an in-sync team that plays for each other and leaves it all on the field.

Windham junior Sam Rogers stays with the ball and ahead of
his opponent during a boys' varsity soccer match on
Thursday, Sept. 7. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA  

“That’s a tough team were playing, but we’re really confident in what we have right now,” said Windham senior Nick Marion. “We can outplay anyone if we stick to our plan, and we play our game. We were playing exactly how we wanted to, and it just came down to execution.”

Marion said that Windham possessions and their back line play was outstanding.

Windham came out with intensity and moved the ball well with strong defense throughout the match. They stayed with the ball and their footwork was impressive against Gorham.

Some 10 minutes into the first half, Marion scored on an assist by junior Sam Rogers. Marion then scored again with 22:35 left in the first half.

Windham did not let up and several times rerouted the ball away from their net and toward Gorham’s goal. At the end of the first half, Windham led 2-1.

Less than three minutes into the second half, Marion scored again for the third time as Windham remained aggressive with tough defense.

“Anytime you have a cross-town rival in a program that has great success ... that’s all the motivation you need [to feed the competitiveness],” said Windham boys’ varsity soccer coach Jeff Neal. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the team effort and the leadership that we’ve had has been fantastic ... cross the board, great effort tonight.”

Neal said that the program has been trying to build a culture of any day, any game, any team, and they have also worked to build the team’s mentality to overcome adversity and not get stuck in the moment thinking negatively.

According to Neal, Windham focuses on what they must do to be better and that applies off the field as well as on.

Windham outshot Gorham with 18 shots at goal to Gorham’s total of seven.

Rogers scored for the Eagles with less than 20 minutes left in play to make it a 4-1 match.

“Coming into the game we thought it’s been 11 years since we even came close to being the team we are,” said Rogers. “[Gorham] dominated us every year. It feels very good to beat them and we all had the mentality we knew we were going to do it.”

Rogers said they had a good mindset coming into the game and they’ve been working hard in practice. Rogers said passing went well and they had good substitute rotations, so players were getting rest. He thought it was an excellent match for the Eagles. <