Windham varsity football falls to Portland in waning minutes

By Matt Pascarella

Windham varsity football wasn’t going down against Portland without a fight in their season home opener at Windham High School on Friday, Sept. 12. The Eagles pretty much matched the Bulldogs touchdown-for-touchdown and led the game at halftime. Portland took the lead after the third quarter; but Windham answered and tied the game at 21 with 10 minutes remaining. Unfortunately, Portland scored late in the fourth quarter to edge out ahead and won, 28-21.

Windham junior Parker Sperry runs toward the end zone
during the WHS varsity football home opener against
Portland High on Friday, Sept. 12.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

“The biggest thing I see is our improvement from last week,” said Windham junior Parker Sperry, who had 104 rushing yards in the game. “We just got to put this game in the past and I think we’ve (taken) a big step since last week and we’ve got to work as hard as we’ve been working at practice and keep getting better. I think we definitely put up a battle against Portland. We got to all focus on our own job, and if we all focus on our own job we can come out with the ‘W’ next week. Effort went well; last week we had bad plays and hung our heads, this week we gave it everything we had and that’s all we need to do to win.”

In the first quarter, Portland had possession of the ball early, but Windham turned them over and took over on downs. The Eagles moved the ball up to a third and goal. Sperry ran the ball into the end zone to put Windham ahead, 6-0, after the extra point failed.

While Windham defense was strong, Portland scored before the end of the first quarter. Windham blocked the extra-point attempt, and the game was tied 6-6 after one quarter.

After Portland scored a touchdown in the second quarter, Windham sophomore Beckett Bragdon returned the kickoff all the way to the Eagles’s 48-yard line. Sophomore quarterback Patrick Davenport, who had 74 passing yards in the game, then connected on a pass to junior Tegan Perkins. Sperry then took the handoff and raced 25 yards for a touchdown. Junior Luke Drottar caught the two-point conversion and Windham led 14-13 at the half.

“We have a lot of young guys out there, and these guys are taking big steps, learning more and more each week throughout practice,” said Windham senior Ty Stahle. “You can see the improvement. We’re all starting to figure out everything we can do and then come together as a team. This was a big game coming in and we’ve been destroyed by Portland before and I’m glad that we fought hard and didn’t give up; I’m pleased with how we played.”

Portland scored another TD in the third quarter, but Windham didn’t let that go unanswered.

On a first-and-goal in the fourth quarter, Davenport ran eight yards for a touchdown. The extra-point conversion was good, and the game was tied 21-21, with just 10 minutes remaining to be played.

With just a little over 2 minutes left, Portland found the end zone to break the tie and take the lead, 28-21.

“I thought we swarmed to the ball pretty well defensively,” said Windham varsity football coach Matt Perkins. “Offensively we executed a lot better, guys made some good plays. We were right in the mix; I saw some really big improvements in our blocking and moved the ball pretty well. We could get better at the defensive-run game for sure. We had a turnover, shot ourselves in the foot a couple times and it caught up to us, but the kids played really well and we drastically improved.” <