Cam Wright-to-Alex York bookended Gorham’s attack at Scarborough on Saturday evening, April 16. York scored on Wright assists just after the game had begun and again to end it in double overtime. The 9-8 final capped a spectacular back-and-forth, and is the first victory the Rams have taken – yes, ever – from the Storm.

York wanted no glory. “It was a team effort,” he said, “it wasn’t me at all. It was a whole team effort. I was just part of the whole motion…We’ve never beaten Scarborough, never beaten Scarborough, it feels so great; I can’t even describe how great it feels.”

“That was a great game,” said Gorham head coach Dan Soule. “Both teams played hard…I’m proud of the effort and the grit that we played with today. Moving forward, it’s a good steppingstone; it’s never been done, we’ve never beaten this team. In the history of Gorham lacrosse, it’s a big accomplishment.”

“24 minutes didn’t go well, and 32 minutes went pretty darn well,” said Scarborough head coach Joe Hezlep. “A lot of good things, a lot of bad things, but effort was up, even when things weren’t going well.”

Not even a minute and a half into the opening quarter, Wright dished to York from behind the Storm cage – the domain, that evening, of Dominic Joy – and York shuttled the ball home for 1-0. The play was surprising, and it wasn’t: These are two top teams, so for Scarborough’s defense to fold up so quickly was unexpected, though for Gorham’s offense to capitalize with like speed was not.

The Storm answered immediately, though, Sam Neugebauer besting Rams’ keeper Carter Landry unassisted for 1-1; the home team inched ahead shortly thereafter, with Cam Nigro feeding Marco Manfra on the 2-1 tally.  

About 40 seconds later, Gorham took another turn in the spotlight. Tristan Brunet to Joe Gallant spun Joy’s head for the second time, balancing the board at 2-2. Barely four and a half minutes had elapsed, and already the lead had changed hands multiple times; the bout had all the makings of a classic season opener.

But then the Rams began to pull away. York added his second, relaying a pass inward from Wright with 3:35 to play in the first quarter; and Wright tallied one of his own, zigzagging out from low in the Storm zone, then blasting a shot to Joy’s far side at 10:27 of the second. Another 25 seconds on, Brady Rioux batted a ball out of midair past Joy: Suddenly in the tug-of-war, the Storm began to skid portentously close to the mudpit of defeat.

“We’re really young, defensively,” Hezlep said. “We have three sophomores playing, and our senior doesn’t have a ton of experience. So those things are going to happen.”

Scarborough got one back at 6:44, when Cam Thibeault fed to Marc Guerette, loitering inside the Rams’ defense, not far from Landry. Guerette sort of reverse-underhand-scooped his shot, a crazily nimble piece of card-trickery that slipped past Landry for 5-3.

Still, Gorham charged back, earning another pair before halftime: Brunet weaved through the Storm defense for an unassisted notch following a timeout around the 2:30 mark, and Chris Tucker grabbed a poorly aimed, under-pressure Scarborough clear attempt with just seconds to play. Tucker shuttled the ball forward to Wright, who beat Joy for 7-3 and all the momentum at the break.

The Storm coaches and captains did what they could in their downtime to settle the rest of the team, telling them, among other things, to take the game one goal at a time. That advice worked, apparently, because they wasted no time clawing back into contention in the latter quarters.

Perhaps getting up on the Storm had also left the Rams a little complacent, because they seemed off their game in the third. Scarborough battered them with goals: Manfra fed Neugebauer for 7-4 early, and Thibeault, locked in, powered home two points all by himself at 1:33 and 4.3 seconds. 7-6.

“Scarborough adjusted a little bit,” Soule said of the Storm’s comeback. “Basically took away our first slide, which forced us to slide from a different angle, which we’re not used to. We tried to make the adjustments off that, but they were a little quicker, a little more athletic, and obviously it hurt us in the third quarter, the fourth quarter.”

“Just simplifying things, defensively,” Hezlep said of his team’s adjustments in the second half. “Talking a little more, communicating definitely helped with confidence.”

Scarborough drew even with Gorham once again to start the fourth. Nigro at midfield threw the ball forward to Guerrette, who lightninged it down to Manfra at the left corner of the Rams’ cage; Manfra dished across to Neugebauer for an immediate redirect past Landry and 7-7.

“We came out in the second half, we lacked energy,” said York. “We just weren’t doing what we did in the first half.”

Hezlep praised Landry’s performance. “We got some good looks,” he said. “Not a lot of goalies in the state can stop a guy coming downhill real fast with a good shot, and Carter, he just made us look bad at times. That’s not because we’re bad – he’s just really good. He’s worked at his craft and it shows.”

Each team added one more – Brunet gave his Rams the edge with 4:40 remaining, and Neugebauer from Manfra saved the Storms’ butts with just 68 seconds between them and capitulation – before the matchup devolved into OT1.

There, the teams traded pressure, with Gorham attacking early and Scarborough soon taking over. Things remained undecided, though. The Storm rang a poster – one of several in the contest – and Landry turned a huge save to keep the Rams alive. 

Scarborough nearly earned the W with just seconds to play, when a Landry clear from behind the cage found Guerette’s stick at midfield. Landry didn’t, at first, realize he’d turned the ball over, and was nearly caught inauspiciously out of net; he managed, however, to get back in position before Guerette could pull the trigger on an attempt.

Nope, it wasn’t until OT2 that this particular battle was fated to end. When it happened, Wright to York’s winning goal actually rather resembled their opening goal – evidently the duo had a good thing going. 9-8 the final.

Still panting, York described the goal: “My teammate, Cam, he came around the net, he was going to pull it, faked it. I just curled like always, I was there, shot it; it went between the goalie’s legs, and it went in.”

“They started to play a little bit tighter to Cam and Alex,” Soule said of the Storm defense, “trying to not allow them to get the ball. And utilizing different ways that we can get [Scarborough] off the ball and force them to slide from that angle opened up Alex down low, and we got lucky and he made a good shot on that.”

“Once overtime came, we knew we had to kick it to another level,” said York. “We worked, and worked, and it went in our favor…It was just a wonderful night. We worked hard, and that’s all it is. Worked the whole 48 minutes and the overtime – it’s just a storybook ending.”

“Coach Soule has them – they work hard,” said Hezlep. “They’ve got some kids who just flat-out grind. [Tristan, Alex and Cam] – they do some tough things to stop.”

Regardless of the outcome, the game made for thrilling watching. Both teams clearly have bright seasons ahead of them. The Storm descended on Biddeford on Tuesday night, the 19th, after the Current’s print deadline. The Rams, in turn, host the Tigers on Friday the 22nd.

Scarborough’s Marc Guerette shoulders onward, despite close Gorham defense.

Scarborough’s Sam Neugebauer works under heavy Gorham pressure.

Rams Cam Wright (34) and Alex York (36) celebrate just after combining for the team’s game-winning goal at Scarborough on Saturday night.

Scarborough’s Sam Neugebauer hits the deck after a run-in with Gorham’s Ryan Hamblen.

Alex York’s (36) game-winning shot in double-OT gets past the Scarborough defense and their netminder, Dominic Joy, as well.

Scarborough’s Cam Thibeault does what he can to cut around determined Rams defender Tristan Brunet.

Scarborough’s Cam Nigro rips a shot toward the Gorham cage on Saturday.

Scarborugh’s Marco Manfra (17) fires the Storm’s second goal past diving Rams netminder Carter Landry.

Gorham’s Mat Anderson tracks a Scarborough attacker closely.