Before moving full-steam-ahead into winter athletics, it must surely pay emotional dividends to take one final look back at the outgoing autumn.

Like any school, Gorham experienced its share of sports ups and downs, these recent months. In fact, Becky Manson-Rioux’s field hockey team no doubt felt both quite acutely: After building to second place in the regular season – after chewing through the likes of Thornton, Portland, Sanford and others – the Rams secured a bye through the postseason prelims.

In the quarters, however, they suffered an unlikely, unexpected ousting, 2-0, at the hands and sticks of No. 10 Cheverus, who they’d beaten in late September. The loss must’ve been particularly piercing, as a win would’ve earned them the opportunity to rematch with Marshwood, the only team to defeat them prior to the playoffs.

Rick Altham’s golfers also posted an impressive run, going 7-3 in the regular season and taking fifth at States. Kenny Tuttle, Max Johnson, Tim O’Neil and Lucas Roop shot a combined 327 at Natanis that day, just nine strokes off first-place Scarborough.

The football team struggled; they surely knew, from a relatively early date onward, that theirs was not a battle to make the postseason, but a battle to win even a single game – which they eventually did. The 16-14 victory over No. 9 Oceanside no doubt tinged Gorham’s season with a sweetness even two-win or three-win teams can’t quite claim to understand; it must’ve felt like the Rams’ own personal championship.

Both soccer squads – both perennial powerhouses – built superb autumns. The boys never lost a game, not through the regular season; they entered the playoffs ranked third, but fell victim in the playoffs to one of a number of upsets, losing to No. 6 South Portland and retiring for the year at 11-1-3.

The girls, on the other hand, grabbed the five-seed for the postseason, where they brushed past neighboring Westbrook, ranked 12th, in the prelims only to succumb to No. 4 Thornton 3-0 in the quarters. They exited the year at 11-5.

Volleyball wended their way to the middle ranks. They capped their regular season with a brilliant flourish, a 25-0 final set over South Portland, and entered the bracketing in eighth. They bounced No. 9 Windham 3-1 in the prelims, but faced – and fell to – No. 1 Greely in the quarters, 3-0.

Finally, cross country. The boys squad, fourth at Regionals, advanced to States, where they finished eighth. Jesse Southard led the Rams in Belfast, claiming sixth in a time of 16:30.66. The girls, as a group, did not make States – but Anna Slager sure did as an individual. Slager took first at Regionals and seventh at States, crossing in 19:46.78.

Gorham midfielder Andrea Stemm fires the ball forward in the Rams’ season-opener at Portland, in early September.Gorham senior Cole Houghton grabs a header in the Rams’ regular season home win over South Portland.