What a difference a week can make.

In their western Class A soccer quarterfinal against Portland on Oct. 22, Gorham’s boys controlled the action at both ends, banishing the Bulldogs from the post-season with a 3-0 win.

“I saw that game and Gorham just dominated them,” said Scarborough coach Mark Diaz. “I walked away saying, ‘Wow, we’ve got some things to do here.'”

Well, Diaz and his team followed through on that thought and, six days later, the second-seeded Red Storm ousted the visiting Rams, ranked third, from the playoffs with a convincing 2-0 victory.

“We didn’t play well because Scarborough played very well,” Gorham coach Tim King said. “They took it to us.”

Indeed, from the opening minutes, the hosts controlled the play and kept the Rams from getting their prolific offense on track.

Patrick King, Mark Schmidt, Phil Reed and Isaac Pease – all offensive threats – came up against a defense that beat them to the ball and limited their scoring chances.

“We shut down the middle and kept the ball outside,” said the Red Storm’s Pierre Soubrier. “We knew that they had a good offense, and we played a lot harder on defense to shut down (Reed) and (Schmidt) because we know that they are dangerous people.”

Soubrier, meanwhile, was battling at midfield and getting the ball up to teammates Jason Philbrick, Eddie Jones and Brent Mayo.

Scarborough’s first solid opportunity came seven minutes into the action, when Gorham goalkeeper Will Pike leaped for a high ball, was bumped and fell to the ground. Kyle Donaldson was there, however, to head the ball away from the goal.

A similar situation caused a problem for the Rams 10 minutes later, when a miscommunication resulted in an own goal on a high kick from Red Storm back Jeff Soules. It was the first score Gorham had given up since the end of September.

Down 1-0 to start the second half, the Rams came out noticeably more physical, attempting to rattle their opponents and seize the momentum. Still, Scarborough controlled most of the action, forcing Pike to fully extend himself to bat away a Philbrook shot in the fifth minute and later to make a nice save on a chance by Taylor Sabo following a corner kick.

With just under 15 minutes to go, another corner kick found Philbrook with the ball 12 yards to the right of the goal and he booted it in, effectively sealing the game for his team.

“The second goal was huge,” Diaz said. “They had to come out and move people around to get some pressure on us.”

Red Storm keeper Derek Poulin was barely tested.

“They are just a good defensive team,” said King. “They’re very strong all over. They don’t give you time with the ball, and we just didn’t execute the way we needed to today.”

Scarborough (14-1-1), whose only loss was delivered by Gorham, 2-1, in the second game of the season, topped Greely the following afternoon and will play Mt. Ararat in the state title game Saturday.

The Rams were disappointed, but their 11-3-1 record denotes a successful season.

“I feel bad for the seniors,” King said. “We have some real good players moving on, and I’m going to miss them a lot.”