RICHMOND  — At the end of Thursday’s crossover high school boys soccer game, Richmond players left the field gassed.  

After falling behind 4-0 in the game’s first 12 minutes, the Bobcats chased the Class C Traip Academy Rangers all over the field, something Richmond opponents have been quite used to doing for several seasons. 

Richmond made it a game, closing to 4-2 on Dakotah Gilpatric’s second goal with 32:42 remaining. But the Rangers scored three goals over a seven-minute span for a 7-2 victory.  

Traip, playing out of the Western Maine Conference, improved to 7-4-1, while the Bobcats fell to 7-2-1.  

The start by the Rangers, who had a 90-minute bus ride from Kittery, was fueled by striker Jose Liberal Diaz, who scored the game’s first three goals before the contest was 10 minutes old. Each tally came from in close, with Richmond goaltender Kyle Tilton (nine saves) having little chance of making a save.  

“They did come out of the gate and caught us as spectators for a while,” said Richmond coach Peter Gardner. “Traip players showed that a player might have had an opportunity to score, but realized a teammate had a better opportunity. We work on that all the time. Today for us, those things just stopped.” 

“It was a great start. We came out hot, then in the second half we fought right back,” said Traip’s Tre Brown,

who finished with a goal and three assists. “We just came off a tough battle with North Yarmouth Academy (a 5-0 Rangers win on Tuesday), and that fueled us today. It is tough to play a team you don’t know a lot about, like Richmond. But we played well today.” 

Michael Pitcairn made it 4-0 when he scored with 27:48 left in the first half.  

From there, Richmond pushed back as the Bobcats found their game. Led by Justin Vachon, Andrew Vachon and Dakotah Gilpatric, Richmond put five consecutive shots on Traip keeper Emerson Brown.  

The Bobcats finally struck for a goal with 4:53 remaining until halftime. Conor Vachon sent a pass in front of the Traip net, with Gilpatric driving a shot past the dive of Brown for a 4-1 contest.  

Richmond continued to push through the first half of the second frame. Gilpatric scored again, this time off an assist from Andrew Vachon, to draw the Bobcats to 4-2 with 32 minutes left. And, the Bobcats had their chances for a third goal, with shots from Justin Vachon, Gilpatric and Max Viselli either wide or high of the target, or stopped by Emerson Brown, who finished with seven saves.  

Traip put the game away when Diaz finished off a pass from Tre Brown for a 5-2 lead, followed by goals two minutes apart from Dylan Santamaria and Tre Brown.   

“The fifth goal gave us our energy back, and we were hot after that, just like the way we started the game,” said Tre Brown.  

“We played well in the middle 50 minutes, then (Traip) pushed through and went down the middle, which is something that should never happen,” said Gardner after his Bobcats were outshot by a 16-10 margin. “Once they scored the fifth goal, they opened it up. We had a couple opportunities to get that third one, but we didn’t and Traip scored.” 

Now, Richmond begins its preparations for Saturday’s big East-West Conference showdown at Rangeley (1 p.m.). The Lakers are 7-3 and sit atop the Class D South Heal Point Standings, with the Bobcats currently in third despite a season-opening 3-2 home win over Rangeley on Sept. 7.  

“We go back to what we do, passing the ball around and doing the things that we do best. We will need to make good runs and not be selfish with the ball,” Gardner said.  

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