WHS falls to Scarborough in boys’ lacrosse playoffs

By Matt Pascarella

Windham’s 11th place varsity boys’ lacrosse team took the lead early in the preliminary playoff game against sixth-place Scarborough at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham on Wednesday, June 10 but it did not take Scarborough long to tie the game. Windham surged in the final moments of the fourth quarter and tied the game 11-11 at the end of regulation but during overtime, Scarborough was quick to score and won, 12-11.

Windham sophomore Luke Hangge surveys his opponents 
before moving around the goal during the boys' lacrosse
preliminary playoff game against Scarborough at the
University of Southern Maine in Gorham on
Wednesday, June 10. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

“All the boys came in thought we were going to win, we got up, everything was high,” said Windham senior Jack Henry. “It was a fun game; it just didn’t go our way. I think we got unlucky, both sides of the ball played super well. Our offensive movement went really well, our defense ... went really well. Shot placement and aggressiveness were good. We have a lot of young guys that are going to be amazing next year, they’re going to prove to everyone that Windham is going to be great.”

At the start of the first quarter Windham sophomore Luke Hangge scored in the first minute. Henry scored twice, followed by Hangge again.

Roughly three minutes into the second quarter Scarborough tied the game 4-4. Windham senior Mason Arbour scored, then junior Luke Drottar scored. The game was tied 6-6. Shortly before the first buzzer, Scarborough broke the tie and led 7-6 at the half.

“We tried to come in confident to boost our intensity, I think all of us felt good,” said Windham junior Tegan Perkins. “Scarborough gave us an offense struggle, but then we clicked and it was head-to-head. Not necessarily (one thing that could have changed the game). We did very well getting man-to-man; we weren’t ball watching at all, we were tight on everybody. We were slower on defense ... our midis were having to get back a little quicker.”

Hangge scored to start the second half. Henry scored, then sophomore Liam Reinbold scored.

Scarborough answered a short time later and the game was tied 9-9 after three quarters. With three minutes of play left, Scarborough led by two goals.

Less than two minutes remained in the game when Hangge scored twice. As the clock ran out the Eagles had forced overtime and tied the game at 11-11.

“In the last two minutes and I just wanted to win the game so bad,” said Hangge. “We tried really hard. We all played an amazing game, especially goalie Zach (Gagne, who had 22 saves). You need to trust each other as teammates and that’s just what we did for this game. There’s not much (more) we could have done. Communication, setting picks on defense, calling out the slide (went well). Sometimes we took shots we shouldn’t have, we’d play five minutes of defense and then come down on offense and take a silly shot. I did that a couple times too. I think we should have possessed a little more when their defense was tired. The camaraderie is the coolest thing about this team ... we work so well together.”

In overtime, Windham was ready. However, 37 seconds in, Scarborough scored.

“Last Thursday and today the belief in each other was strong,” said Windham boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Small. “They knew ahead of time this is going to be a tough game and for 48 minutes it’s about what we are doing and ... you can’t be selfish. These guys believed that they could come back on people. There’s never one thing that led to the loss. If we were to play Scarborough three days from now, there are things in this game that we want to go fix. Windham played hard; I told them, don’t ever play the ‘would of, should of, could of game, play the how do we get better tomorrow game.’ I knew they had heart and they showed it.” <