GORHAM — Year after year, the Gorham High boys’ lacrosse team puts up more assists than normal in a sport that typically doesn’t have many.

The latest example came Wednesday night when the Rams assisted on 16 goals during a 19-2 rout of Windham.

Most of the goals began with a player behind the net finding an open cutter. The others came on transitions from defense. All were from within 10 feet of the goal.

“We’re a very unselfish team so when we see that cut we’re going to find it,” said Alex York, who finished with nine goals and seven assists. “Like I said, everyone knows their roles – the middies cut when they’re supposed to, everyone cuts when they’re supposed to, so we find them and they find the back of the net.”

Gorham improved to 8-2 and dropped Windham, which has alternated wins and losses all season, to 4-5.

Gorham Coach Dan Soule credited his team for sticking to the game plan.

Advertisement

Logan Heckman, left and Matt Hamel of Windham compete for the ball Wednesday night with Brady Rioux of Gorham during Gorham’s 19-2 victory in boys’ lacrosse.

“(On offense) we try be active, trying to move. Anytime we move, anytime we cut, we are going to get (scoring) opportunities,” he said. “With our settled offense, if we’re moving, we put pressure on (the defense).

“(Offensively), we played as a team, (we) ran through the offense and didn’t try to get creative.”

York opened the scoring 2:25 into the game when he connected from 2 feet after taking a pass from Jake Dupuis (2 goals, 6 assists).

Twenty-two seconds later, York scored again when Chris Tucker (4 goals, 2 assists) picked up an errant clearing pass at midfield and ran down the field before dishing a perfect pass to his teammate.

York was the distributor on the next two goals.

First, from behind the net, he hit a cutting Tucker with a pass 4:31 into the opening period for a 3-0 lead. Then he took a clear from Mat Anderson –who broke up a play in the defensive zone – and fed Dupuis.

Advertisement

Windham’s Elliott Benjamin, center and Logan Douglas try and block the shot of Gorham’s Jake Dupuis.

Dupuis finished the first-quarter scoring when he came out from behind the net, stopped and shot past Windham goalie Ben Elliott.

“I think one of the things they are very good at is movement,” Eagles Coach Pete Small said. “Coach Soule does very well teaching his kids to read the first (defensive) slide, (then) the second slide. They know when it’s coming and they know how to find that open guy. That’s what they did so well tonight – they saw when our second slide wasn’t coming and hit (a teammate) and scored.”

Windham broke its scoring drought 29 seconds into the second quarter. Tom Lekousi took a pass from Griffin MacVane and squeezed the ball between Carter Landry’s legs to make it 5-1.

The Rams, who led 11-1 at the half, scored the next 14 goals before allowing the final goal of the game to Tyler Woolston.

“Our whole year our motto has been to work for 48 minutes,” York said. “We’ve had some games we didn’t play well in the first period or maybe the fourth. Today I think we did great for (all) 48.”

Also scoring for Gorham were Brady Rioux (two goals) and Ben Nault. Landry only had to make two saves through three quarters as the Eagles only attempted 13 shots on the defense of Holden Edwards, Ryan Hamblen, Brady Rioux, Sam Burghardt and Peyton True.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: