Again and again the Rams edged ahead of the visiting Eagles on Friday evening, but again and again the Eagles came back. Not until the fourth quarter did Gorham finally crack Windham’s code and pull away for good, Mike Susi leading the way.

Susi scored three of his six goals in the final 12 minutes as the Rams raced to a 15-10 win over the Eagles and jumped to 8-1 on the season. The Rams are currently third in A West, one slot back from Westbrook – the only team to whom Gorham has fallen, thus far – and one slot ahead of TA.

“In the fourth quarter, basically it came down to us realizing that we had an opportunity to push,” said Gorham head coach Dan Soule. “We started playing with more urgency, which we hadn’t done in the Westbrook game. We started to realize, ‘OK, we need to get back to what we were doing the first seven games.”

Soule praised his squad – as a squad – for the win. “The whole team. We played like a team today.”

Windham slips to 6-3; the Eagles occupy fourth in A East, just back from Messalonskee and just ahead of Cheverus.

The teams traded successes on the attack to open Friday’s contest. The Eagles struck first, in fact, Connor Daigle putting Windham up 1-0 just three minutes in. Three minutes later, however, Brett Stiles pulled the Rams even. Susi inched them ahead with 26 seconds remaining in the quarter before Zack Callahan answered early in the second for 2-2.

Gorham managed to eke out two more then, giving them the 4-2 advantage, but Windham responded in turn. Brian Kelley scored the 4-4 point at 2:49, but 41 seconds on, Tristan Brunet gave Gorham yet another lead, one they held onto through the break.

“I think we play somewhat similar styles,” said Small of the two squads. “Our kids have played Gorham a number of times, some of them have played them in the summer; we’ve just seen each other a lot. I think they know us, we know them.

“Our kids are working well together – better than they ever have as a team. That’s huge, that they’re developing this unselfish nature of moving the ball and playing as a team of 10 – truly, as a form of 10, rather than two here and two here. That’s helped us.”

Eagle Griffin Jacobson especially showed his stuff early in the third, scoring two in rapid succession to tie things up at 6-6, and Bryce Rolfe later matched a Susi goal to keep the board at 7-7. That was the last of Windham’s comebacks, though; they followed tight on the Rams’ heels into the fourth, when it was 9-8 to start, but then things began to unravel for them.

Gorham sharpened their ball movement in the last quarter, allowing them to break away from Windham’s pursuit. Brunet put them up 10-8 less than a minute in before Susi added a pair at 10:49 and 7:11.

Jacobson and Callahan each notched points for the Eagles in the stretch, but it wouldn’t be enough. Susi tallied another, and in addition to his hat trick, teammates Cam Wright and Alex York each added one for the 15-10 final.

“This game, fourth quarter came, we realized we had an opportunity, we kept pushing on that,” said Soule. “It worked out. We did a good job on transition – that’s how we’re successful – so if we can keep pushing transition and doing our job there, then typically we’re winning games.”

In addition to Susi’s six goals, and Wright’s and Stiles’s one each, Brunet finished with four and York with three.

“They found a couple of seams,” said Small of the fourth quarter action. “A couple of their guys were able to pull our defenders out a bit, we were a little slow to slide defensively. The momentum had been coming back a little bit – it had been back and forth, back and forth – and for a while there, we kind of felt some momentum coming our way as we were starting to get better at ground balls, and winning them on their side.

“They got possession a little bit more, then found a couple seams real quick, and I don’t know that we adjusted as fast as we would like to. And that was it: On the fast break opportunities, they were able to find some guys open on the back side and pass. They pass very well. Dan Soule is a very good coach; he focuses on fundamentals, and you can see it in their team. It’s nice to see.”

Small praised a number of his players: “I thought our goalie, Jacob Dionne, played a great game,” he said. “He had some saves point-blank; he stood on his head, making some of those saves. That’s one of those things that doesn’t show up on the scoreboard.

“Griffin obviously plays well. [Gorham’s] got a couple of good defenders that they locked down on us, and Griff has this mentality where he wants to make it happen. He wants to do it. So he’s sort of, ‘Get the ball in my hands, let me go,’ bull in a china shop, and away he goes.

“Ross Bachelder – one of the things that also doesn’t show up [on the scoreboard] is, when we struggled, early in the first quarter to control the ball at midfield and get the ball downfield, he stepped up a ton. He would take it from the defensive end, find the open guy and transition it down for us on offense. Second and third quarters, he really helped us do that.”

“Brian Kelley; Alec Emerson on the side, getting ground balls – but I really think what we’ve been able to do this year is spread that around to 10 guys playing lacrosse on the field all at once.”

Small added other names to his list of praiseworthy performers too, including Ty Skvorak and Jason Nielsen – “These guys,” he said, “that are our D-middies, that are really working to transition down to the other end, they took it on themselves to make it happen.

“But again, it’s a team. They had to get open to make it happen.”

Jacobson finished with four for the Eagles, Rolfe two, Callahan the pair, Daigle his one, and Kelley his one as well.

Gorham hosted Scarborough on Wednesday the 27th, after Current Publishing’s print deadlines; they travel to TA on Friday the 29th. Windham visited Deering on Wednesday and welcome Westbrook on Friday.

Gorham’s Joe Gallant unwinds into a pass at home against Windham on Friday.Windham’s Max Dubois and Gorham’s Brett Stiles collide in the Rams’ 15-10 victory over the Eagles on Friday.Windham’s Jake Segal defends Gorham attacker Cam Wright in the Rams’ 15-10 win over the Eagles on Friday.Ram Brett Stiles cuts back to shake off the Eagles’ Jason Nielsen.Windham’s Chris Lekousi chases down Gorham’s Abe Eaton in the Rams’ win over Windham on Friday.Gorham’s Matt Anderson and Windham’s Alec Emerson vie for a ground ball.