GORHAM – Top-seeded Gorham scored all of its goals during a span of 15 minutes in the first half to roll to a 3-0 victory over fourth-seeded Thornton Academy in a Western Class A girls’ soccer semifinal Saturday.

The unbeaten Rams (16-0) will host Scarborough in the regional final at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Gorham got off to an uncharacteristically fast start against the Trojans (13-2-2), a team it didn’t play during the regular season.

“We knew they like to get a goal first and play defense the rest of the game, so we wanted to get the first goal so that we could be on the attack,” said Audrey Adkison, who scored the first two goals.

“Today, we wanted to come out and we wanted to get it done quick,” said Kiersten Turner, who scored the Rams’ third goal.

“We wanted to score in the first half. We’ve struggled doing that in the past. We’ve been more of a second-half team, and today we came out and got it done.”

Adkison scored in the 16th and 28th minutes to stake the Rams to a 2-0 lead. Turner added her goal with less than 11 minutes left in the first half.

“The first half, (Gorham) played very well, and they were opportunistic,” Thornton Academy Coach Chris Kohl said. “We haven’t given up three goals (in a game) all year, and we gave them up in a pretty short span.”

“We played a great team game today, I thought,” Gorham Coach Jeanne Zarrilli said. “Everyone was where she needed to be.”

The Gorham-Scarborough regional final will match two programs that have combined to win four of the last six Class A state championships. Gorham captured three in a row from 2005-07, and Scarborough is the reigning champion.

The teams met once during the regular season — a 1-0 Gorham win on Sept. 10.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH