SANFORD – Both the Sanford and Gorham girls’ soccer teams entered their SMAA game Wednesday night on good streaks.
Gorham had won five straight and Sanford had won its first seven games before Saturday’s loss to Cheverus.
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And while both teams had their moments, in the end it was Sanford and the strong left leg of Morgan Fogg pulling out a 2-1 victory at Cobb Stadium.
Fogg scored both of the goals for the Spartans (8-1) early in the second half.
Gorham (6-3) outshot Sanford in the first half and led 1-0. In the second half, Sanford got the tying goal, then what proved to be the winner, in the first 7:53.
Goalie Kellie Tovey kept the Spartans in front with some outstanding saves in the second half.
In her postgame remarks to her players, Sanford Coach Kendra Brown called her team’s second half “the best half of the season.”
Gorham felt it let one slip away. Sanford stepped up its game in the second half to garner some valuable Heal points. The Spartans started the game ranked seventh in the standings while the Rams were fifth.
Fogg scored 4:05 into the second half to tie it at 1-1. She drilled the ball with her left leg from the left side into the upper right corner of the net. Laura Kirkpatrick gave her a nice drop pass.
Her second goal, just over three minutes later, was a hard drive just under the crossbar in the middle of the goal.
“Laura dropped the ball back the first time and Allie Legere did it the second time,” said Fogg.
Both of Fogg’s goals were perfectly placed but she wouldn’t accept any credit for her accuracy.
“Honestly, I just kicked it,” she said.
After a somewhat sluggish first half, Sanford came out strong.
“We wanted to come out strong in the second half and try to catch them off balance,” said Fogg. “Both teams were playing hard but we just felt that if we played our game, we could win.”
Gorham took a 1-0 lead after 19:20 of the first half when Kate Hopkins lifted a shot into the right corner over the reach of Tovey.
The Rams had a couple of other good scoring chances earlier in the half.
First, Meghan Cushing had a shot in front that Tovey stopped, then Morgan Cushing had another with Tovey coming up big again.
“We should have been up 3-0 in the first half,” said Gorham Coach Jeanne Zarrilli. “We also had our chances in the second half. We don’t finish. That’s been our problem so far this season.
“I thought we gave it away in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The kids fought hard right to the end.”
Late in the game with Gorham pressing to tie it, Tovey came up big a couple of times in the waning moments.
Her best stop came after Gorham sent a high shot from the right side across the goal mouth. Tovey made the save in front of a couple of Rams at the corner of the goal.
“Kellie is so clutch,” said Fogg. “You can always count on her.”
Sanford was effective keeping the ball in Gorham’s end several times late in the game, which helped to run valuable time off the clock.
Staff Writer Tom Chard can be contacted at 791-6419 or at:
tchard@pressherald.com
Twitter: TomChardPPH
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