The Portland High School boys soccer team got three goals from three different players Tuesday as goalie Will White stifled the Windham High School Eagles and the Bulldogs rolled to a 3-0 win in Windham.
The game’s first goal came just over 10 minutes into the first half when Fazal Nabi served a cross to Paley Burlin. Burlin headed the ball by Windham goalie Nick Taylor for what would prove to be the game winning goal. That was the only time Nabi, one of the state’s top players, and marked by Windham freshman Nolan Allen, would contribute to a goal.
“He did a great job,” Windham head coach Jim O’Connor said of Allen. “We had Adam Szklany starting before the game and he had a little injury. So I asked some players and he said ‘I’ll try it.’ He tried it and did a nice job.”
Windham tried to tie the score over the next 29 minutes of the first half, but two corner kicks and a shot all missed the net. Patrick Ciez set up Fernando Aceves but the shot was over the net.
Portland scored an insurance goal just 27 seconds into the second half. The ball was lofted into the box and new Windham goalie Andy Brix left the net to play it. But the ball evaded his grasp and before he could get back to the net, Portland’s Kirk Jurgelevich put the ball into the net.
“They countered well,” O’Connor said. “It was two or three chances then they came down and scored. We made two mistakes in the back and they capitalized. They made mistakes and we didn’t capitalize.”
Windham had several more chances to score over the balance of the second half. Dylan King got the ball into the box where Ciez headed it but the shot was stopped. A minute later a chance on a direct kick was turned away. Mitchell Hodge got a shot on net later in the half. Josh Burns fired a shot through a screen and White somehow tracked it down. With just under 14 minutes left, Ciez headed a shot on a corner kick but White dove to make the save.
“We’ve been like that with all our losses,” said O’Connor. “1-0 could have been 2-1. Most of our losses, except for Scarborough, we’ve been in the game. It’s just frustrating at times. But it’s good for a younger team to have a little adversity at times. We’re trying.”
Portland put the game away with 4:52 to play when Oryem Charles got a clean look at the net. He fired a shot and Brix dove to save it. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the ball managed to get by Brix and trickle into the net.
The Eagles dropped to 6-6-1 with the loss and were scheduled to finish their regular season schedule Thursday against Sanford. The Eagles will be in the mix when the tournament begins next week.
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