As the Gorham High field hockey team left Cheverus on Monday afternoon, the players were exhausted and dissatisfied. Yes, they’d been beaten for the first time.

One thing they weren’t, however, was defeated.

“We’re disappointed, but we’re not leaving with our heads down,” said Gorham coach Becky Manson-Rioux, following a marathon affair between a pair of teams that entered the game undefeated.

Both teams nearly left that way, too.

A deadlock at the end of regulation held up through the first 8-minute overtime session and 7:34 of the second extra period. But with 24 seconds left before the game ended in a draw, Cheverus’ Sarah LaQuerre broke in all alone after a Gorham defender fell and slid a shot past the charging Gorham goalie to give the Stags a 3-2 win in Portland.

Cheverus improved to 10-0 and wrested the top spot in the Western Maine Class A Heal Point standings from the Rams, who fell to 9-1 and third in the standings, just behind 9-0 Scarborough.

After a hard-fought regulation that saw the Stags jump to a 2-0 lead only to have Gorham battle back to tie it, the field opened up in the 7-on-7 overtime. Gorham kept the pressure on Cheverus, but Stags keeper Audrey Grinnell was fantastic, making four of her 14 saves in overtime. Gorham goalie Emily Southard also came up huge, charging out to stonewall a breakaway bid by LaQuerre with a kick save early in the first overtime.

But with the final minute ticking away, LaQuerre broke down the right side and the last Gorham defender between her and the cage lost her footing. Southard again charged. This time, LaQuerre put it past her.

“I aimed for the corner,” LaQuerre said. “It’s what we always do.”

A throng of Cheverus students that had steadily multiplied as the game progressed charged onto the field when the shot went in.

“It’s worse than running 15 400s,” said drained Gorham midfielder Hannah Prince, who scored both goals for the Rams and seemed to be everywhere on the field. “I do track and I do the 400 (meter dash), and it was worse than that, and I thought there was nothing worse than running a 400. We played really hard in the overtime. We just got a little burnt out, but I feel like we definitely outplayed them the whole second half. We got it in the circle. We got a few corners. We got some great shots off. Their goalie had some nice saves.”

Cheverus went up 1-0 a mere minute into the game when LaQuerre converted a feed from Emily Sawchuck. Gorham nearly tied it as Chelsea Black’s deflection headed for the top part of the cage several minutes later, but Grinnell went up high to smack it away. Gorham kept the pressure on, but couldn’t find the net. Cheverus made it 2-0 with 3:30 left in the first half as Maggie Grindatti drove a high shot from the left side into the top of the goal off a pass from Alyssa Audet following Cheverus’ first penalty corner of the contest.

The Rams answered quickly, making the most of their ninth penalty corner of the first half. With 43 seconds remaining until the break, Kayleigh Ballantyne settled the pass off the penalty corner and Prince blasted it home to make it 2-1.

Just under eight minutes into the second half, again off a penalty corner on a nearly identical play, Prince got the equalizer with Ballantyne on the assist.

“We have some specific plays that we do,” Prince said. “I just try to flick it into the opposite right corner and hopefully someone gets a stick on it or it goes in the net. We tried to do that a couple more times and it almost worked. We’ve really mastered our corners.”

The Rams finished with a 17-6 edge on penalty corners.

Though only four games remain in the regular season – Gorham’s next is Friday at home against Marshwood at 4 p.m. – there’s a lot still to be decided. Gorham is at Scarborough for the finale, and Cheverus and Scarborough still have yet to play. The playoff seedings remain up in the air.

“I think this does help us for the games to come,” Manson-Rioux said. “It gives us a different level of motivation that we didn’t have.”

In a 2-1 come-from behind win over Sanford, then the rally to force overtime against Cheverus, the Rams have shown they are resilient – an important trait as the postseason nears.

“That is the No. 1 thing about my team,” Manson-Rioux said. “We have been down in two games, by a goal and then two goals in this game. But we don’t get down, we don’t feel like, ‘Oh, gosh, we can’t come back.’ We know we can come back, and we do.”

Gorham’s Hannah Prince sends a shot toward the goal during Monday’s field hockey game against Cheverus in Portland.
Staff photo by Tom Minervino

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