The Gorham and Deering boys’ soccer teams both put unbeaten records on the line Thursday night at Deering High School.
Both team managed to remain unbeaten after a 0-0 tie in double-overtime. In an evenly matched game, Gorham (5-0-1) had seven shots, and Deering (6-0-1) finished with six.
“Both teams were solid defensively – it was tough to break through,” Gorham Coach Tim King said. “I think, overall it’s just two evenly matched teams that really went at it in a playoff atmosphere.”
Neither team created an abundance of dangerous scoring opportunities.
The first one didn’t come until 25 minutes into the game, when Gorham senior Jackson Fotter wove through Deering defenders and took a shot headed for the left corner of the net.
“Jackson Fotter is a great striker and amazing with the ball,” King said. “Any time the ball is at his feet, he’s really dangerous.”
Deering goalkeeper Mustafa Kadhim slid to deflect Fotter’s shot with his foot. With Kadhim on the ground and the goal open, Deering’s defense cleared the ball to keep Gorham off the board.
“We were organized, defensively, and I thought our goalkeeper played a great game,” Deering Coach Joel Costigan said Kadhim. “The game definitely shifted back and forth.”
Costigan said he thought his team played especially well in the first half, at which point he felt optimistic about pulling off a win.
Deering sophomore Iessa Ramadan give his coach more hope when he opened the second period with a breakaway and a shot that bounced off Gorham’s crossbar.
“They have some really good speed – Iessa is incredibly fast, so we were trying to focus on shutting him down,” King said. “I think, in the first half, we actually focused too much on that, which took us out of what we wanted to do. We played better in the second half.”
Gorham answered back five minutes later when freshman Andrew Rent launched a shot from 30 yards out that Kadhim punched up over the goal.
Gorham couldn’t capitalize on Deering penalties in the second half, which resulted in nine free kicks.
“It’s still early in the season, and there’s time to make adjustments if we need to,” King said. “We created some good chances, and we had a lot of the ball, especially toward the end.”
Costigan also said his Rams need to work on taking advantage of opportunities.
“One of our struggles today is that we held onto the ball too long,” Costigan said. “We didn’t attack as a unit as well as I’d like us to and as well as we have in other games.”
In all but two games, Deering has won by just one goal – including powerhouse squads such as defending Class A South champion Scarborough.
Gorham also beat Scarborough by just a goal, but outscored its other four opponents 20-4 entering Thursday’s game.
“That’s good to have this early in the season – to really see where your team is and put your kids to the test,” King said. “We’re coming out of here happy. We played a good game against a really good team. This was a fair result.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
