Going into the last quarter, Windham varsity boys’ lacrosse team was down 6-1 against South Portland, at South Portland High School on Wednesday, May 13 but the Eagles’ defense kept the Red Riots scoreless, and Windham’s offense ran up the scoreboard to come within one goal of tying the game, narrowly falling 6-5 at the final buzzer.
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| Windham junior Colin McKenna takes a shot at the goal during a boys' lacrosse game at South Portland High School on Wednesday, May 13. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
Windham took the field aggressively but was unable to score in the first quarter, as South Portland ended the first quarter with a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles’ offense took shots at goal in the second quarter, but nothing was landing. Windham junior Zach Gagne had several great stops and blocks in goal. McKenna scored to make it 3-1, with South Portland ahead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Windham fell behind more as the Red Riots doubled the number of goals scored in the first half in just the third quarter and took a commanding lead.
“We’ve been fighting adversity all year,” said Windham senior Mason Arbour. “We just came in the fourth quarter and did our thing. We saw the other team slowing down and we knew we had to pick it up, or we’re going to lose. We got to keep that same intensity throughout the whole game. We had a good pace at the end; we had good clears. Zach, our goalie, had insane saves; we just got to keep on going. We got to work on the little things: passing, dodging, shooting, clearing, giving control of the ball, spacing. Coming off a win against Cape and four losses before that, this (comeback) was a good thing. We knew So Po was a good team ... we lost but we know if we meet them again in the playoffs, we can easily beat them.”
Gagne had nine saves over four quarters.
The fourth quarter was completely different as Windham really cranked up the intensity and showed they were still in this game.
Arbour scored, then sophomore Liam Reinbold found the back of the net. The Eagle’s offense would not slow down. Sophomore Sean Lebel scored. Windham was getting turnovers and snagging ground balls. As the clock ticked down, Windham kept going; sophomore Luke Hangge scored.
Windham worked to force overtime but ran out of time.
“We’ve seen snippets every game where we play at a really high level,” said Windham varsity boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Small. “The question: ‘is how do you maintain that?’ We really tried to focus on ... what do we have to do to be better. The concept is we just need one-at-a-time. If you believe in yourselves, then you can just never quit. Once it happened (scoring) ... it snowballed. The fact that they were able to come back in the fourth quarter like that was really good and I think it speaks to their character. I think this is a high character team. These guys work their tails off; we just got to piece it together for 48 minutes.” <
The Eagles’ offense took shots at goal in the second quarter, but nothing was landing. Windham junior Zach Gagne had several great stops and blocks in goal. McKenna scored to make it 3-1, with South Portland ahead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Windham fell behind more as the Red Riots doubled the number of goals scored in the first half in just the third quarter and took a commanding lead.
“We’ve been fighting adversity all year,” said Windham senior Mason Arbour. “We just came in the fourth quarter and did our thing. We saw the other team slowing down and we knew we had to pick it up, or we’re going to lose. We got to keep that same intensity throughout the whole game. We had a good pace at the end; we had good clears. Zach, our goalie, had insane saves; we just got to keep on going. We got to work on the little things: passing, dodging, shooting, clearing, giving control of the ball, spacing. Coming off a win against Cape and four losses before that, this (comeback) was a good thing. We knew So Po was a good team ... we lost but we know if we meet them again in the playoffs, we can easily beat them.”
Gagne had nine saves over four quarters.
The fourth quarter was completely different as Windham really cranked up the intensity and showed they were still in this game.
Arbour scored, then sophomore Liam Reinbold found the back of the net. The Eagle’s offense would not slow down. Sophomore Sean Lebel scored. Windham was getting turnovers and snagging ground balls. As the clock ticked down, Windham kept going; sophomore Luke Hangge scored.
Windham worked to force overtime but ran out of time.
“We’ve seen snippets every game where we play at a really high level,” said Windham varsity boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Small. “The question: ‘is how do you maintain that?’ We really tried to focus on ... what do we have to do to be better. The concept is we just need one-at-a-time. If you believe in yourselves, then you can just never quit. Once it happened (scoring) ... it snowballed. The fact that they were able to come back in the fourth quarter like that was really good and I think it speaks to their character. I think this is a high character team. These guys work their tails off; we just got to piece it together for 48 minutes.” <
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