GORHAM — As the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard, the Windham girls’ soccer team prepared to celebrate as if it had just won a playoff game. With its recent history against Gorham, the Eagles’ feelings after their 4-3 win over the Rams were justified.

The win was the first for Windham over rival Gorham since the Class A South final in 2021, when the Eagles were on their way to a state championship. In each of the last two seasons, Gorham beat Windham in the regional semifinals, last season on penalty kicks.

“They’ve knocked us out the last two playoffs, so we came into this game knowing it was going to be a good one,” said Windham senior Emily Talbot, who scored a pair of goals – Windham’s first and last of the game. “I think we all had that, especially us seniors, in the back of our heads, that the last time we beat them was as freshmen.”

Windham is 4-0-1, while Gorham is 4-1-1. Gorham entered the game ranked No. 1 in the Class A South Heal point standings, with Windham right behind in the No. 2 spot. Gorham also is No. 1 in the most recent Varsity Maine top 10, while Windham is eighth.

“We know, they’re the team to beat. They’re the standard,” Windham Coach Deb Lebel said of Gorham.

Talbot’s first goal gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead with 20:56 left in the first half. Talbot dribbled to her right, creating enough space to fire a long, high shot just out of the reach of freshman goalie Lydia Spear.

“I just kind of had space, and I took the shot. I think it got us going. Our team, after the first goal, it really gives us momentum to keep playing,” Talbot said.

Each of Windham’s first three goals were on long shots. Kyla Harvie gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead with 34:27 left in the second half, and Marley Jarvais’ goal three minutes later pushed the lead to 3-1. The long shots were by design, Lebel said.

“We knew we had to come out and shoot, and shoot a lot. We’ve had trouble with that. Our game plan was just put it on net and clean it up if we need to,” Lebel said. “We’ve got the players who can shoot from outside, and I’m glad they took them tonight.”

Gorham had success off corner kicks, scoring twice. Julia Reed’s header off a Piper Forgues corner with 8:59 left in the first half knotted the score at 1-1. In the second half, Ashley Connolly’s header off a Forgues corner cut Windham’s lead to 4-3 with 22:38 remaining, capping a flurry in which the teams combined for four goals in just under 10 minutes of play.

“Julia’s header was beautiful. That’s her basketball leaping,” Gorham Coach Jeanne Zarrilli said. “We have been threatening offensively, but we’ve been sometimes struggling to finish, so it was nice to see finishing in a big game like this. We almost had a couple others, too. (Windham) defended really well. Windham’s a quality team all around.”

Spear was in net for Gorham in place of junior Sawyer VanderHaar, who is out for the season because of a knee injury. Spear made seven saves.

“I thought in a game like this, (Spear) did a good job in a big game like this. This was a big learning (game) for her, to work through the season and get ready for the playoffs,” Zarrilli said.

Libby Hartwell made three saves for Windham.