In a span of 42 seconds, Gorham turned a tie game into a two-goal lead.

It held up, as the Rams remained unbeaten with a 2-1 win over Windham in Tuesday night’s SMAA boys soccer game at Windham High School.

Gorham moved to 4-0, while Windham took its first loss and dropped to 3-1.

The Rams struck first with 28:07 to go in the first half, as Drew Hopkins took a pass from Connor Reagan in the box and tucked a low shot into the net past Windham keeper Nick Taylor. A Windham turnover at midfield led to the quick strike.

Then, with 27:25 to go, Jake Willis made it 2-0 off a feed from Colin Lubelczyk. Lubelczyk gathered to ball after a Windham miscue on a clearing attempt.

“We made some silly mistakes, but that came from their pressure,” said Windham first-year coach Paul Baber. “We give them full credit. They worked their butts off. We made two mistakes and it cost us two early goals.”

Gorham, which entered the game with wins over Westbrook, Cheverus and Biddeford, not only forced Windham into those early errors, but also made the Eagles pay dearly for them.

“We actually capitalized on it, which was nice,” said Gorham coach Tim King. “We’ve had a lot of chances early in the season that we haven’t capitalized on, but we did tonight. I wish we could have capitalized on a few more later to put the game away.”

Windham had a chance to cut its deficit in half with 12 minutes to go before the break as Matt Coffee got a head on a cross, but his shot sailed just over the crossbar.

Reagan nearly gave the Rams a three-goal advantage 15 minutes into the second half as he broke in alone, but was stonewalled by Taylor. The two collided hard and both went down and stayed down. Play was not immediately whistled dead and the ball ricocheted around the box before finally being cleared. Reagan was OK and returned to action. Taylor was helped off the field with an apparent knee injury. He was replaced in net by Ben Noble.

After Coffee put a couple hard shots on goal around the 20-minute mark, only to have Rams goalie Tim Hardy there for the save, Robby Lentine finally put the Eagles on the scoreboard, heading in a corner kick from the right side by Dylan King to make it 2-1.

The Eagles had several chances for the equalizer over the final 12 minutes, but Hardy made a diving stop on Will Hanson’s header, punched a corner kick out of traffic and caught Coffee’s shot from the right side to the near post as the finals seconds ticked away.

“I’m walking away thinking that these are two very good teams with a lot of heart that play very good soccer,” said Baber, whose Eagles have defeated Portland, Bonny Eagle and Deering in the early going. “These are the games as coaches and players that we should want to play and want to be a part of.

“Unfortunately, we left too much of a hill to climb in the second half and it got away from us. But as I said to the players, I’d prefer for it to get away from us now than later on in the season. We can learn from this. We’ve had a tremendous start to the season and we want to keep it going.”

King said that while he wished his team had put the Eagles away when it had the chance, he’s very pleased to escape with a victory.

“We jumped on them, then we kind of hung on a little bit and I was kind of disappointed in that,” King said. “But to get a win on the other team’s home field against a team that was undefeated, we’ll take that any day of the week.”

The Rams played without starter Jesse Orach, who suffered a broken leg on Friday.

Gorham’s Drew Hopkins (left) and Windham’s Dylan King battle for the ball during Tuesday night’s game.
Staff photo by Tom Minervino
Gorham goalie Tim Hardy punches away a corner kick as he collides with Windham’s Patrick Ciez late in Tuesday night’s game, won by Gorham 2-1.
Staff photo by Tom Minervino
Windham’s Will Hanson (left) and Gorham’s Jake Willis contest a loose ball during Tuesday night’s game.
Staff photo by Tom Minervino
Windham’s Dylan King moves the ball up field as Gorham’s Kevin Lubelczyk gives chase on Tuesday night.
Staff photo by Tom Minervino
Windham’s Patrick Ciez gets a shot off past sliding Gorham defender Seth Wing in the first half of Tuesday night’s boys soccer game.
Staff photo by Tom Minervino

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