WELLS — The Kennebunk boy’s soccer team cruised to a 6-1 win over hosting Wells Tuesday evening.

The Rams were led by senior Brenden Whitten, who scored a hat trick on the night.

“Whit’s motor is always running – we love him,” said Kennebunk coach Greg Cavanaugh. “He’s always working hard, trying to get behind back lines. He’s getting more clever in his runs and he’s finishing. He’s the elder statesman on our team. We have a young group and he sets the tone.”

Whitten was excited to get the win along with his teammates.

“It’s always good to get a win – I think we’re starting to roll in the right direction,” said Whitten. “We’re a young team but kids are growing up really fast. Through and through we had a pretty good game, it was a great team effort and we were able to get everyone in which was good.”

Maxwell Murray got the Rams on the board early, knocking in a header to give Kennebunk the 1-0 advantage. Wells’ Liam Bell would then score a header-goal of his own eight minutes later to tie the score.

The two squads would battle for the ensuing nine minutes, with neither team being able to establish a rhythm.

Whitten would eventually take advantage of a well-placed throw-in and score to give Kennebunk the lead back. Whitten would then tally his second goal less than eight minutes later, followed by a goal from Murray to give Kennebunk the 4-1 lead at the half.

Cavanaugh was pleased with the way his team responded after the slow start.

“I think it was a mindset – we had a lax mindset early,” said Cavanaugh. “Getting on the bus was slow, getting into our warm-up was slow. What is important is that these guys identified that and that is a sign of a mature group.”

The Warriors would not go quietly though, pushing the Rams throughout much of the second half. It was not until the 5:02 mark that Kennebunk scored on Whitten’s third goal of the night.

Kennebunk would collect one more goal two minutes later when a Wells pass was deflected into the Warriors’ goal.

“Wells is tough, Wells is gritty and they’re relentless,” said Cavanaugh. “They conceded four goals in the first half but it took us 35 minutes in the second half to find it again. They don’t quit, credit to them.”

Cavanaugh was pleased with his team’s performance, but also believes that there is room for improvement.

“It’s always gratifying when you end up with a positive result and a win,” said Cavanaugh. “Again, there are a lot of problems that we need to resolve as a team. We did a lot of nice things tonight, I thought we finished well which is always important.”

Up next for Kennebunk is back-to-back Class B state champion Yarmouth. Both Cavanaugh and Whitten look forward to the challenge.

“It’s all on Yarmouth now, we’ve got them next and it’s a great opportunity for us to figure out who we are,” said Cavanaugh.

“We need to play the way we’ve been playing,” said Whitten. “When we play our best I think we can compete with those top teams like Yarmouth. It’s about everybody playing the best we can … it will be a tough test and we have to come prepared to play them.”

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at [email protected] or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.