The Westbrook High boys soccer team broke open a close game with two second half goals en route to a 3-1 win over visiting Thornton Academy in a Western Maine Class A tourney prelim on Tuesday evening. The victory by the No. 8 Blazes over the No. 9 Trojans now sends Westbrook to Scarborough on Friday afternoon for a quarterfinal match-up with the top-seeded Red Storm (13-0-1).
The Blazes didn’t exactly enter the playoffs on a high note. They dropped their final two regular season games (a 6-1 loss at Gorham and a 3-2 loss to Kennebunk) and they needed a confidence-building game like this one as they head deeper into the post-season.
“We had a tough week last week,” Westbrook coach Tim Gillis said about those two setbacks. “I was pleased the guys got that out of their system and got back into the winning mode.”
The Trojans played well in the first half, going toe-to-toe with Westbrook. The visitors had several offensive opportunities and they turned away several scoring chances by the Blazes. “Early on they had some great chances and I felt that we escaped because we were not strong enough on our marks,” said Gillis.
Westbrook got going thanks to a score from Lance Ludka, but the Blazes were unable to add to their 1-0 lead and the teams went into halftime with just the one goal separating them.
“Come playoff time these guys are fighting for their playoff lives and they want to win,” said Gillis about all tourney opponents in general and Thornton in particular. “It was 1-0 at halftime and that’s a pretty good situation for them (Thornton). It felt like at 1-0 we were kind of thinking that maybe this would be enough to get by. I told them at halftime that we were not going to the ball, we were not going through the ball, and we were not willing to head the ball. You really have to push yourself all game long.”
The Blazes scored the insurance goal they were looking for just two and a half minutes into the second half when Tyler Rand worked his way through the Thornton defense to give his team a 2-0 advantage.
“I thought we did a pretty good job keeping possession. We could have done a better at midfield possession,” Gillis said. “We take some chances; we play with three guys up top; so in some ways we’re giving up a little of that midfield control.”
Westbrook senior Zach Souza soon added another goal to push the Blazes lead to 3-0 and the Westbrook defense continued to hold off the Trojans. But with 16:19 to play, Thornton’s Josh Lombard booted a shot past Westbrook goalkeeper Galen Perkins to pull the visitors within 3-1.
“We really played well offensively and defensively as a unit – it was a constant team effort,” said Souza. “I think we’re starting to gel. We know our goals and we know what we’ve got to do.”
Next up for the Westbrook is undefeated Scarborough and the Blazes realize they’ll need to play extremely well if they’re going to upset the Red Storm.
“They’re a great team and we have a big challenge (ahead of us),” added Souza. “If we’re going to overcome that we’re going to need another solid team effort. We have to rely on our backs to do their job and when we get our chances we have to finish.”
“We’re looking forward to another chance (at Scarborough),” said Gillis. “We lost to them 1-0 last year in the Western Maine final and I would love it to be that tight a game with a slightly different result. They’re a lot better than us this year – they’re the 1 and we’re the 8. I’m just hoping we can stay with them.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
