GORHAM – There was nothing going offensively on either side for the first 74-plus minutes of Tuesday’s boys soccer showdown between South Portland and Gorham.
Then Austin Bell made something out of nothing.
The Gorham midfielder scored on a rocket of a shot from just outside the Red Riots box to break a 0-0 deadlock as the Rams (8-0-2) defeated the Red Riots (6-2-2) at Gorham. In a cagey affair that saw just 10 shots on goal and looked destined for overtime, Bell’s goal came from a shot that could only be called speculative, so much so that even he didn’t think it would be the winner as he booted it.
“I didn’t think I was going to score,” Bell said. “It was kind of a crapshoot shot. The fact that it went in, it was just overwhelming emotions. It was really great.”
The South Portland match was just the third time the Rams have played a winning team since a big 1-0 victory over defending champions Windham back on Sept. 4, having drawn both of the previous games (0-0 with Scarborough and 1-1 with Kennebunk).
Getting a hard-fought win against a fellow top team heading into the latter part of the regular season was significant, coach Tim King said.
“Those were two pretty evenly matched teams. We’ve had some really good battles with them over the last couple of years, including in the playoffs the last two years so we knew it was going to be a tight game,” he said. “Obviously we were hoping we could get one on the board early, that didn’t happen but we just kept working and working and Austin hit a great shot there.”
Getting on to the board at all looked like a tough task from the get go as the majority of the play took place in a midfield battle royale, with both teams struggling to gain any meaningful possession and create chances in the final third.
South Portland had perhaps its best opportunity of the game only four minutes in, when defender Joey Brown won the ball in his own half and sent a long ball forward. Dillon Burns was a step ahead of the Gorham defense and was in on goal, but blasted his shot far over the bar.
Gorham’s best chance of the half came at the 14:30 mark, when a header across the Red Riots box found Milan Vidovic left open at the back post. But he could only direct his header high and wide, and the score remained knotted at 0-0.
The second half started slowly as neither team could gain a foothold inside the other’s half in the first 10 minutes. Gorham’s Cody Elliot created the first true chance of the half 13 minutes in when he created some space in the South Portland box, but his left-footed shot went just wide of the post.
The Red Riots nearly had the lead on their own speculative shot with 15 to play, when defender Ben Michaud decided to have a go from 35 yards out. His shot turned and dipped on its way towards Alex McCarthy, but the Gorham goalkeeper was able to dive to his left and get two fists on the ball to steer it clear.
As the clock wound down under 10 minutes, the atmosphere around the field grew even more tense and the game started to open up. The Rams nearly took the lead at the nine-minute mark when Connor Reagan used his speed to beat his defender to the end line and send a cross into the box. Elliot got to it, and his header had South Portland keeper Ben Burkey beat but went just wide.
Two minutes later it was South Portland that just missed a chance at the lead when Damjan Draskovic threaded a pass to a charging Andrew Whipple. The Red Riots midfielder beat his defender to the ball, but his bending shot from close range couldn’t beat McCarthy as the game remained goalless.
Not for long though. The scoring move started with a Gorham throw-in inside the South Portland half. A Chandler Reagan pass into the box was deflected away and bounced over to Bell on the far side, and instead of keeping possession he decided to have a whack
It turned out to be the perfect decision, with his shot whizzing past a diving Burkey and into the far corner of the net for the 1-0 lead.
“I wasn’t really planning on shooting it,” Bell said. “I was just kind of getting the ball on net because the keeper was kind of blinded. I just hit it right. It went in, I got lucky – I’ll take that any day.”
South Portland coach Bryan Hoy said the play was much like the winning goal Windham had scored on his team two weeks ago.
“(Gorham) was doing a lot of playing the ball to one side of the field and bringing it back to the other side and we were kind of aware of that so we were trying to have our central defenders stay home,” Hoy said. “But when one team floods one side you kind of pull those defenders over. When they crossed it back, there was no one over on the backside.”
The goal deflated the Red Riots, who couldn’t muster up another good chance on goal as Gorham saw out the slimmest of victories.
“These games are going to be tight and we know that it’s going to take one play one way or another to change the game and we’ve got to be in these situations, and I’ve liked the way we’ve stood up so far,” King said. “We haven’t given up a lot of goals, we’ve been solid defensively and tonight we made the play when we had to, and that’s the way it’s going to be. Playoff soccer is just like that.”
With the win, Gorham remains one of just two undefeated teams in Western Class A along with 8-0-2 Scarborough, and the victory over the Red Riots means major Heal Points, where the Rams sit behind only the Red Storm.
With games left on the docket against Marshwood, Noble and Cheverus, all teams with winning records, Gorham has a great chance of locking up one of the top seeds and a first-round bye.
“We’ve got a lot of good teams left to play and this was certainly one of them,” King said. “It gives us some good Heal Points, but there’s so many games left that we can’t really be looking at the Heal Points too much right now. We’ve got a lot of business to take of first.”
That might be true, but having yet to lose a game and with another big victory on their re?sume?, the Rams are feeling pretty good about their chances.
“It really shows we can do it,” Bell said of the win. “We have a chance to win playoffs. I think we’re as a good a team as anyone out there and I think we can do it.”
Gorham midfielder Alex Owens and South Portland defender Calvin Gronin sprint for the ball inside the Red Riots’ box early in the first half.
Gorham forward Connor Reagan tries to corral the ball as South Portland midfielder Robert Graff looks on.
South Portland defender Ben Michaud puts a slide tackle in on Gorham midfielder Austin Bell early in the first half. Bell would score the game’s only goal with 5:07 to play as the Rams defeated the Red Riots 1-0.
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