WHS Varsity Football shows skills against Kennebunk in preseason scrimmage

By Matt Pascarella

Windham varsity football took the field against Kennebunk at Kennebunk High School on Saturday, Aug. 23 in preparation for the upcoming regular season.

Windham sophomore Jordan Pastore makes his way around
Kennebunk opponents during a varsity football preseason
controlled scrimmage at Kennebunk High School on
Saturday, Aug. 23. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

This was a controlled scrimmage, which is more of a practice session, than a game. Players and coaches improve skills and techniques through various plays, while evaluating performances as the Eagles worked in a competitive environment to be the strongest they can when it comes time for the start of the regular season. While no formal score was kept, Windham crossed into the end zone a significant amount more than the Rams did.

“I think (these scrimmages) help us a lot,” said Windham sophomore and quarterback Patrick Davenport. “Being able to see defenses and just getting live reps is definitely great. I got a lot better at reading defense today. I’m making reads off, handing the ball off from my running back. Defense (needs work), getting hats to ball, breaking down trying to make tackles better – we had too many missed tackles today, myself included and we got to fix that.”

WHS varsity head football coach Matt Perkins said the team had good speed but needed to continue to work on tackling and getting off the ball up front. While he was pleased with the team’s offense speed, he said they need to do a better job sustaining their blocks. Perkins said Windham made a lot of good plays.

Last year, Windham lost 10 seniors, but few were starters, and a lot of last year’s team have returned this year, so they’re having no problem reallocating senior-led positions.

“We all surprised ourselves,” said Windham junior Parker Sperry. “Coming into this season, no one really knew how we were going to be, but I think after this scrimmage we’ve definitely shown massive improvements and I’m very excited about the season. What went well was our team comradery has gotten so much better compared to last year. I think we’re all just working so hard as a team in practice; the whole offensive line and everyone on the offense and defense is just giving everything they have in every play.”

Junior Colin McKenna said these scrimmages are a good opportunity to put what they work on in practice into play. He felt like everybody put in a lot of effort and every play meant a lot to everybody – they didn’t take any plays off.

Davenport, Sperry and McKenna each agreed it’s going to be a good season; and Windham can go out there and beat anyone they want.

“Got to finish tackles and got to finish blocks,” said Perkins. “We got to continue to break down, but I thought our pass game was pretty good, quarterbacks did pretty well, receivers did a good job on the routes finishing. I saw a lot of productive things for sure.”

Windham will play an exhibition game at home with the kickoff at 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29 against Sanford. The Eagles will face Portland in the regular season home opener on Sept. 12, with kickoff at 7 p.m. <

Windham boys’ varsity lacrosse downs Lewiston

By Matt Pascarella

Windham boys’ varsity lacrosse came out strong in a game against Lewiston on Friday, May 16 at Windham High School with the Eagles scoring five goals in just the first quarter and its defense was stingy, keeping the Blue Devils from putting much of anything on the scoreboard. After the final buzzer, Windham won 12-3.

Windham sophomore Colin McKenna surveys the field as he
makes his way toward Thornton Academy's goal during a
boys' lacrosse game in Saco on Friday, May 16.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

It was also Windham Youth Lacrosse Night and Windham Youth Lacrosse players from first grade all the way up to eighth grade got to take the field with the varsity team before the start of the game.

“Since the beginning of the season, I think we’ve really grown as a group, on both sides of the ball, defensively and offensively,” said Windham sophomore Luke Drottar. “We’re really starting to click – we just came off a dry spot with our team, but this game really helped us bounce back; it was good for team morale. We all like to play with each other; we know we want to win. On the offensive side, passing went really well. On the defensive side, they talked really well and slid really well. We were all on the same page tonight.”

Windham came out ready to go and after they intercepted a pass from Lewiston, Drottar scored in the first 90 seconds of the game. Windham junior Garrett Winslow followed up a short time after that when he scored, assisted by junior Jack Henry.

The Eagles connected on passes and moved the ball well. They caused several turnovers to move the ball in their direction.

Drottar found the back of the net once more. Defense kept Lewiston’s scoring to a minimum. Senior Lukas Hammond scored before the end of the half, where Windham led 7-2.

“Tonight, we stayed pretty good together,” said Hammond. “For the most part, we stayed out of the box, it’s been an issue of ours and we’re working on it. Any team is beatable every day and today was us trying to come back from previous losses. We were moving the ball really well offensively. At Cape Elizabeth we struggled to take shots and tonight we took a lot more, which was great – it gave us more opportunity to score. We went in tonight hungry. We still need to work on our fundamentals and make sure we got our plays down and repping them constantly.”

Sophomore Trevor Baillargeon kept up Windham’s strong offense when he scored early in the second half. Then Hammond scored from Drottar.

Windham defense continued to make it very difficult for Lewiston to score.

Sophomore Colin McKenna scored in the fourth quarter and Windham continued to command the field.

“We’ve recognized coming off the last game some things we need to improve and more than anything they collectively got the idea of being able to work together,” said Windham varsity boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Small. “We’ve had some growing pains about figuring out how to work with each other – they like each other, but it’s also ‘how do you work with each other?’ Tonight, they just worked with each other really, really well. They needed to elevate and show they can do some of the things they had let slip (in the past two losses). Nobody plays a perfect game and tonight we had a few errors, and when that happened, the kids themselves fixed them on the field. It’s so cool to see, the lacrosse IQ is getting higher, that they are able to adjust on the field together as a group. They were committing to each other even more so ... I couldn’t be more pleased with how they played – that’s a team win.” <

Lacrosse skills and drills practice an opportunity for offseason development

By Matt Pascarella

The Windham High School boys’ lacrosse team has been gathering since June 27 at Cape Elizabeth High School with surrounding area teams for summer skills and drills practices each week. The purpose of these practices was to improve in the offseason while establishing group chemistry and continue that improvement up until the start of the regular season next spring. They had their final skills and drills practice on Thursday, July 27.

Windham senior Jake Lord holds onto the ball while
Windham sophomore Josh Logan defends him during a
boys lacrosse scrimmage with surrounding schools 
during a skills and drills practice on Thursday, July 20
at Cape Elizabeth. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

Windham freshman Tegan Perkins said that his goal during these practices is to get as good as he can and then transfer all those skills and knowledge into the spring season. He said he feels like he’s benefitted from working with his team and others because he said every shot helps you get better.

The teams converged as one big group and then split up into offense and defense and worked on ball movement and handling, and they also competed in scrimmages.

The goal of these skills and drills practices was to continue to have the team practice and develop their lacrosse stick skills during the summer months. Skills and drills sessions were an opportunity for Windham to continue to develop their individual game and have fun on the field. Running drills with players you don’t normally play with was a great way to develop game IQ.

Windham freshman Colin McKenna said coming into high school sports is more competitive, though he knows a lot of the players in the skills and drills practices, so that’s fun. McKenna works on being coachable and takes constructive criticism as an opportunity to improve. He is always working on getting better outside of practice.

“During the season unfortunately, sometimes players are less likely to try new things or to better develop their weaknesses (different dodges, using their weaker hand, etc.) because they are afraid it will weaken the team play,” said Windham varsity boys’ lacrosse coach Peter Small. “This summer, I have watched players really hone in on their relative weaknesses and develop their game. They are also talking more on the field with each other and have developed a better sense of the overall game.”

Small was very impressed with the turnout. They’ve gotten between 25 to 30 players each practice. This was a great group of student athletes who really enjoyed the game and opportunities to play.

Windham senior Aiden Benish said the goal of skills and drills is to get as close to perfection as you can in the small subtle things like footwork, positioning and knowing what your next move is. Benish learned to transition the ball better on offense and communicate better on defense.

He said working with other schools has been like a new addition to their team; everyone works together and helps each other out. Benish said these skills and drills practices will benefit him during the spring season because he’ll have more stick experience and more time on the field with his teammates during the offseason. He wants to be the best player and teammate he can be as well as make others around him better. Eventually, Benish hopes to play at the college level.

“It's been wonderful to see them commit together to play more,” said Small. “They are bonding more as a group, communicating more, encouraging each other more, and have developed a strong identity, especially as the freshmen join with us. I greatly enjoy how hard they work and how much fun they have playing lacrosse.” <