It took the Rams a solid 25 minutes to shake off some cobwebs against the visiting Eagles on Thursday evening, but when they finally came to life, they really came to life. Jackson Fotter nabbed a trio of goals and Cody Elliot a trio of assists in what ultimately turned into a 5-0 walloping, Gorham over Windham.

The Rams jumped to 6-0-1 on the year with the victory. The Rubik’s Cube that is the Heal Points standings currently lists them in A West’s No. 1 spot, just ahead of Deering (7-0-1). The teams have each other to thank for their ever-so-slightly imperfect records, after tying zip-zip back on Sept. 16.

Windham, meanwhile, continues to struggle in 2014; the loss dropped them to 0-7, and they linger at the bottom of the rankings, tied with Massabasic for 17th.

The Eagles deserve a good deal of credit, though, for deadlocking a lethargic Gorham squad in the early going, as Gorham head coach Tim King observed.

“A little slow start tonight,” he said. “We were pretty sluggish; they were beating us to the balls, and that’s the game of soccer. Once we started winning the ball, we could start using our skill, and were moving off the ball well and had some nice goals to end the first half.”

The first of those nice goals came with 14:47 to play before the half, when Elliot, maneuvering through the low-right corner of Windham’s end, flipped the ball to Fotter out front. Fotter redirected beautifully to beat Eagles keeper Kyle Joseph, who got a hand on the shot, but couldn’t manage to push it wide. 1-0.

Five minutes later, Elliot on the corner kick found a leaping Ethan Orach, out front of Joseph. Mid-air, Orach got a powerful header on the ball, which sailed past Joseph to tick the scoreboard upward. 2-0.

With just two minutes remaining before the break, Fotter and Elliot reversed the roles they’d earlier taken, when Fotter slipped the ball into the offensive fray. Elliot picked it up, then targeted a light shot across to Joseph’s far-bottom corner for 3-0 and a wide-open game.

“Jackson and Cody, when they work together, play off each other like that – and Ethan, playing right wing for us tonight, stepped up – so then we had three quick, fast options up front, and when they run off each other, they’re tough to deal with,” King said.

“Jackson was able to take advantage of some great passes, he had a beautiful finish – he’s a skilled player. We’ve had balanced scoring, but I expect there’ll be some games where he and Cody have two, three goals. They have that kind of talent.”

Nine minutes into the second half, Elliot assisted Fotter on his second goal of the evening, and seven and a half minutes after that, Fotter earned his hat trick on a DK rebound. 5-0 the final.

“They played real hard the first 20 minutes,” King said of the opposition. “They just couldn’t get that goal they needed, so eventually we started to wear them down. Once we started playing our game, we could move the ball through them, we’ve got the skill to do that. It wasn’t anything they did wrong, per se, we just playing really well.

“When we do that, we can be pretty good.”

Windham’s Dom Cancelarich chases down Gorham’s Cody Elliot in the teams’ matchup last Thursday night.Josh Dugas captures the ball for Windham; Gorham’s Tyler Richman charges in to defend.Jackson Taylor dribbles upfield for the Rams at home against Windham Thursday night.Windham’s Gene Gumaer and Gorham’s Ryan Firmin clash over control of the ball Thursday night.Eagle Austin Farwell and Ram Ryan Firmin cut backwards after the ball.The Rams’ Thomas Brent and Windham’s Austin Farwell tangle near the sideline in Thursday night’s game in Gorham.

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