Gorham scored five goals in the final 22 minutes Monday en route to defeating Kennebunk, 7-0, at home.
The win kept Gorham – the defending state Class A champions – undefeated (6-0) on the season. Sanford (6-0) is the only other unbeaten team in Western Class A.
The two teams are scheduled for a showdown at Sanford, Oct. 4.
Against Kennebunk (1-5), Gorham received goals from five different players. Rachele Burns and Kelsey Wilson each scored twice. Lindsay Wilson, Katie Zarrilli and Caitlyn Butterfield had one goal apiece.
“We are playing a team game and that’s what we always try and focus on,” said coach Jeanne Zarrilli. “We focus on doing the right thing at the time for the team. We aren’t looking at any one particular play but just that we make the right play in the situation.”
Burns, a sophomore, overcame early frustrations that saw her hobbled with an injury and booked with a yellow card.
“She has matured a lot as a player,” Zarrilli said “She got her game back in gear and managed to do what she knew she could do without getting frustrated or getting a yellow card. I thought she played a really nice second half.”
Along with her own goals, Burns was also credited with an assist on Kelsey Wilson’s score with 15:50 remaining the game.
Burns sent a cross to Wilson who knocked it past Kennebunk goalie Lauren Howard, putting the Rams up, 4-0.
“She always gets down the wing past her defender,” Wilson said of Burns. “All I try and do is get a body part on it because she works so hard to get it across there.”
Butterfield’s goal with a minute remaining was the senior’s second goal on the season. Her other came in the season opener at Noble, an 8-1 victory for the Rams.
Against Kennebunk Zarilli moved Butterfield, who is a captain along with Wilson, from defense to midfield late in the second half.
“That’s why I put her up at midfield,” Zarrilli said. “She doesn’t get to show what a good player she is in the backfield. She runs a brilliant backfield but she is just such a talented player and doesn’t get an opportunity to score often.”
How good is the backfield that Butterfield anchors? Since giving up two second half goals to Scarborough, Gorham has outscored its opponents, 24-0, over four games. That’s four consecutive shutouts for goalie Luci Pike.
“We’ve had our mental lapses and that happens early on,” Zarrilli said. “The big thing is to try and play good soccer for 80 straight minutes. No let downs, no lapses, no thinking we’re all set and we have it in the bag because then we’re done.”
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