Gorham 2

Bonny Eagle 1

Joel Mundy scored the game-winning goal with 1.3 seconds left to give Gorham a 2-1 win over Bonny Eagle Thursday night in Gorham. With the game tied in the final seconds, Mundy moved down the field toward the goal, Bonny Eagle goalkeeper Lincoln Sanborn moved out of the net in an attempt to end the scoring chance, but misplayed the ball. Mundy’s goal was his second of the game.

“I’ve never seen an ending like that and I’ve been coaching a while,” said Gorham coach Tim King. “That’s the first time I’ve seen the ball go in with a second left. Joel is a great player and great players make great plays; and he did.”

The Rams came out of the gate aggressively. In the first few minutes, they recorded one shot and missed wide on a breakaway. Despite their scoring chances, the Scots were holding the Rams in check. Midway through the first half, Sanborn made a diving save to keep the game scoreless.

The Rams had several chances on corner kicks in the first half, but the Bonny Eagle defense was up to the task.

“We had talked about how we were going to defend these guys because some of the guys on this team are outstanding,” said Bonny Eagle coach Alan Curtis. “They are excellent players, we were just trying to find answers. Our backs that we played tonight normally play midfield. We knew we had to control their attacks so we could get into midfield and produce chances on goal.”

Late in the first half, Gorham finally broke through when Mundy dribbled down the right sideline and toward the net. His shot was just out Sanborn’s reach and the Rams led 1-0.

In the second half Gorham came out strong once again. At the 31:42 mark, the Rams nearly scored again on a one-timer but Sanborn reacted to the move and stopped the shot.

Shortly after the near goal, the Scots netted the equalizer. Jamie Ruginski played a long kick off his head that bounced over the head of Gorham goalkeeper Billy Sutherland and into the net for a 1-1 score.

For the balance of the second half, Gorham threw what they had at Bonny Eagle in an attempt to break the tie. But the Scots were ready for all of it.

“Some of my players are getting savvy at picking out who the better players are and what they were trying to do and stopping them,” said Curtis. “Our plan was to frustrate them as long as we could and counter out of that and build something out of midfield.”

As the teams defended strongly down the stretch, the game seemed destined for overtime. But with the ball in his defensive end with 10 seconds to play, Mundy moved forward as quickly as he could to try and win the game. Somehow he got to the net in time and his shot was true.

“I saw the ball go through and I knew I had to hurry up because I heard the countdown,” Mundy said. “I just tried to be as quick as I could.”

With the win, Gorham improved to 8-1, with their only loss coming against unbeaten Scarborough.

“To be a good team you need the full package,” King said. “You need a good offense, a good defense and you need to work well together. We’re still searching for that a little bit, but we’re coming along.”

The loss dropped Bonny Eagle to 3-6 but Curtis was encouraged with his team’s play against a tough opponent.

“I have no complaints from my players whatsoever,” Curtis said. “The first thing I asked was ‘did you give me everything you had?’ And they said ‘yes coach.’ That just makes me extremely proud that they keep fighting and fighting.”