Visiting Gray-New Gloucester piled four goals, including two by Ben Rogers, on top of Freeport in the first half alone last Thursday, Sept. 10 – good timing, considering the Falcons balanced out the action in the later going.
Freeport stepped up their pressure a notch as the second half progressed, but one notch wasn’t enough in the end. The Falcons couldn’t convert before the final buzzer, and suffered their second consecutive shutout, 4-0.
“We played terribly,” said Freeport head coach Joe Heathco. “We just had to play even close to what we can play – and we started to show glimpses of it.
“It’s weird; what I saw in preseason from us, and what I’m seeing now, these last two games, is not connected. We’re definitely not stepping on the field with a game plan, with focus. That’s something I need to figure out.”
Patriots head coach Andy Higgins, on the other hand, was pleased overall with his boys’ performance. “It was a whole team thing,” he said.
“I hate to steal from Bill Belichick, but it was ‘Do your job.’ This is your job; go out and do it. I challenge them: You need to do something to make sure someone [on your team] gets out of here with a win today. Somebody else [on your team] needs to get out of here with a win; you need to do it.”
Gray-New Gloucester advanced to 1-1 on the W. The team lost the first bout on their schedule 3-1 to Falmouth, back on Sept. 4.
Freeport slipped to 0-2 this season. The Falcons also fell 5-0 to Cape Elizabeth on Saturday the 5th.
Two straight scoreless matches mean Freeport has yet to put the ball in the net – a point of concern, naturally.
“We have trouble scoring,” said Heathco. “That’s not a secret.”
He elaborated on how the Falcons’ choices held them back: “The decision-making. We have players, in transition, they get a ball and they play it forward right away – well, there’s nobody forward yet. But then we’ll dribble, six, seven, eight times, when there are people.
“It’s this weird thing where we’re making up our mind, almost, before the play, and sticking with it no matter what, and not really working, clicking as a team.”
Gray-New Gloucester’s Bryce Hayman hashed the 1-0 goal four minutes in, a direct kick from wide right that sailed across left and past Freeport keeper Joey Burke, in his first season as the varsity starter. Four minutes after that, the Patriots’ Evan Plummer earned the team’s second of the day. Situated in perfect position – dead-center out front of Burke – Plummer settled an incoming corner kick from Hayman, took his shot and scored.
Midway through the first half, Freeport logged their first few quality opportunities, a handful of DKs that (obviously) didn’t work out for them. They were driving into Patriot territory, though, and that was a stride in the right direction.
Similarly, ’round about the 17:30 mark, Caleb Rice – a Freeport back – charged up the field, carrying the ball all the way from his defensive zone to within a few yards of the Patriots’ goal. When he arrived, however, Rice found himself without sufficient opportunity to set anything up. Not only did Gray-New Gloucester swarm to him, but his own teammates hadn’t gotten open.
Rogers grabbed the first of his pair at 15:51, a tap across from close on the left side of Burke’s cage. He grabbed his second – on a nearly identical shot – as the half dwindled. 4-0 at the break.
The latter 40 minutes proved far less lopsided. Freeport stepped up their play on both sides of the ball – Burke, for instance, registered some beautiful stops, including a dive on a hard ball at 33 minutes and a deflection on a close ball thirty seconds later – and the Patriots lost a bit of steam.
Heathco was satisfied with Burke’s work in the cage, especially lauding the junior’s second-half play. “It’s tough when you’re the goalie and four go by you. I loved how he stayed with it, and he made some really nice saves in the second half.”
Higgins would like to see his boys maintain their intensity for 80 straight minutes. “We need to toughen up,” he said, “and get that ‘keep your foot on the gas pedal’ mentality. We talked about it at halftime: ‘It’s 0-0, even though it’s 4-0.’
“We kind of had the mentality, ‘We’re up four,’ and we kind of slowed things down a little bit.”
But Higgins also acknowledged that the future will soon become the present: “And we have a game Saturday,” he said. “We need to keep that in mind and keep legs fresh for Saturday.”
Gray-New Gloucester traveled to Lake Region (1-2) – where they won 8-0 – on Saturday the 12th. They drop in on Greely (1-2) on Wednesday the 16th, after Current Publishing’s print deadlines, then welcome Freeport for a quick-turnaround rematch on Saturday.
Freeport hosted Wells (1-1-1) on the 12th; the teams battled to a 3-3 draw. The Falcons head to Yarmouth (3-0) on Tuesday the 15th, also after Current’s deadlines.
Gray-New Gloucester keeper John-Henry Villanueva deflects an incoming ball away from Freeporter Chandler Wyman.
Freeport’s Kyle Rosado gets away from Gray-New Gloucester defender Liam Stewart (12).
A mass of Gray-New Gloucester players – including Evan Plummer (3), Bryce Hayman (10) and Ben Rogers (back) – swarm Freeporter Addison Vosmus in pursuit of the ball.
Gray-New Gloucester’s Bryce Hayman steps just ahead of Freeporter Jack Davenport, looking to interrupt Davenport’s momentum.
Gray-New Gloucester’s Robert Fernandez (7), Cam Usher (13) and Nathanial Brindley (5) all try for a header, while Freeporter Addison Vosmus (center) tries to clear them away.
Freeporter Jack Davenport and the Patriots’ Evan Plummer clash over a ball.
Gray-New Gloucester’s Bryce Hayman and Freeport’s Caleb Rice converge on a ball.
Gray-New Gloucester’s Brady Darnell takes an incoming ball to the chest, looking to settle it, grab control and launch an attack.
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