Greely 1

Gorham 0

Greely’s Kevin Hart scored the first and only goal of the game with just 2:16 remaining in regulation to send his team to the state final and send Gorham home for the season. The second-seeded Rams couldn’t get anything past Greely goalie Oliver Blum, who made some incredible saves to preserve the shutout.

“Obviously I’m disappointed with the result but I can’t be disappointed with the way we played,” said Gorham coach Tim King. “They were clearly the favorite coming in. We battled and gave them all they could handle. They made a play there at the end and we couldn’t make one. But I feel we played as well as we could have.”

It became apparent early on that one goal would probably decide the game as both teams had scoring chances and both teams played well defensively. In the early going, it seemed Greely had the upper hand as they held the ball in the attacking zone much of the first half. But Gorham got their share of opportunities toward the end of the opening half.

Late in the first half, Gorham goalie Billy Sutherland made one of several big saves when he tipped a shot away with 2:24 to go in the half.

In the second half, the Rams returned to the field surging. They controlled the play for the first several minutes and forced Blum to make some big saves. The biggest save of the night came just over two minutes into the second half. Gorham’s leading scorer Joel Mundy gained possession of the ball and was a step ahead of the defenders. He moved one way and forced Blum to move as well. Mundy fired the ball in the opposite direction but Blum, who dove in anticipation of the first move, managed to kick the ball away and prevent a sure goal.

“I felt like we finished the first half playing pretty well,” King said. “We switched things around a bit halfway through the first half and we generated a little more offense and put some pressure on them. We stuck with that in the second half. We did put some pressure on them. I feel like it was a 50/50 game. They may have had a little more possession, but I really think we had as good opportunities as they did. They have a great goalie and he made a great save on Joel.”

Gorham had several more chances after the near miss with a string of corner kicks midway through the half. But Blum was there every time to grab the ball before a shot could be taken.

Around the 60 minute mark, the Rams had another flurry of chances. Blum made a save and gave up a rebound that was turned away by a Greely defender. That rebound was shot wide of the net and the game remained scoreless.

Greely began to assert some control again and took a few shots as the clock dwindled down. But several of their best chances were shot wide of the net. When they did get the ball on net, Sutherland was there.

“(Sutherland) had a very good game,” King said. “He didn’t give up any rebounds and I think they had several shots that were wide but I feel he had those covered if they were on net. He was in position and he had a good game tonight.”

Finally, with just over two minutes to go before overtime, Hart launched a shot that was over Sutherland’s head. It bounced into the back of the net and Greely had a 1-0 lead.

“I thought it was going over and all of a sudden I saw the net ripple and there was only two minutes to go,” said Greely coach Mike Andreasen.

Gorham fired at the net in vain over the final moments and Greely held on. The Rams finish their season with just three losses, but this one hurts the most.

“Making it to the Western Maine finals, you feel pretty good about that,” said King. “But we had high goals this year. We had a good group of seniors that had played together a lot so we expected to be here. I’m just disappointed for them, I wish they could have gone one more step and made it the state game because they deserved it. But it doesn’t always happen the way you want it to. Greely is a good team and they beat us.”