For two quarters on Saturday – the second and the fourth – the Gorham boys lacrosse team outscored Freeport. The Rams tightened up on defense during those two 12-minute chunks of time and limited the Falcons to just a pair of goals.

But the first and third quarters reminded coach Ken Templeton that, while there is hope for the young Gorham program, there is also a lot of work that still needs to be done. The Falcons scored 10 goals in the other two quarters and beat Gorham, 12-5, in a game that was played on Yarmouth High’s turf field because of weather.

“It’s doing all the little things, not throwing the ball away, and we did that a lot in the first quarter and in the third. So that hurts a little bit,” said Templeton, whose team dropped to 2-6 with the loss. “We just need to try to put together a full game. I think that we’re taking little steps forward, but they were a better team today.”

The Rams fell behind 5-0 in the first quarter, despite the strong play of goalie Brian Plowman.

Five minutes into the game he had already made two-point blank saves on Freeport’s Kelso Davis. The first came 3:30 in when Davis followed up a shot that ricocheted off the right post and fired toward what appeared to be an open net. But Plowman shuffled across the crease, back into the picture, in time to make a stick save.

Just over a minute later, Davis attempted a quick-stick one-timer from five feet out. Again, Plowman was there.

“He made some great saves. He just stepped it up,” said Gorham sophomore attackman Brendan Ryan. “He came out really quick in the beginning and just slowed things down for them.”

Plowman was unable, however, to bring the Falcons’ offense to a complete stop. Davis eventually got one by him with 7:02 to go in the first. He hurled a turnaround bounce shot into the upper left corner from 20 feet out. Matt Dale made it 2-0 on a shot through traffic with five minutes remaining in the quarter.

Davis scored three more goals to get the score to 5-0 before the first horn sounded.

The Rams rallied, though.

“(We) came out a little slow in the second,” said Freeport coach Chris Carpentier. “It was not what I would’ve liked to have seen. Gorham had a nice comeback against us there.”

Duncan Allen got Gorham on the board 28 seconds into the second when he beat Freeport goalie Tim Gray with a long shot into the lower left corner.

The Falcons answered back midway through the period – with a goal by Jack Kyle – but that was all the scoring they’d do until the third quarter.

Ryan was stuffed by Gray on two wrap-around attempts in the final four minutes of the half, but he kept at it and finally scored with 36 seconds to go. Ryan collected a pass from Scott Ekin behind the Freeport goal, circled around to the left post and squeezed the ball past Gray.

“I thought Brendan Ryan played his heart out at attack and got us some great opportunities,” said Templeton.

Chad Henry pulled the Rams to within three goals with three seconds left when he scooped a loose ball and beat Gray low.

“I thought at the end of the second quarter was probably the best for us where we were playing with the most intensity and moving the ball most effectively,” said Templeton. “But the second half started pretty rough.”

Freeport scored twice in the first four minutes and added three more goals throughout the period to build the lead up to 11-3.

But the Rams stayed at it. They took advantage of a Freeport stick infraction at the start of the fourth quarter to get goal number four. Chris Roop grabbed a loose ball near mid field and cut in for a high shot. Ryan set up Alex Dahms for an open-netter to make it 11-5 with 4:09 to go in the game before Freeport scored again with 2:24 to go.

“Today, it was a pretty good game for us,” said Ryan. “We’re coming out of a lot of losses in the past, and we just tried to step it up today. We did pretty good.”