Field Hockey: Gorham controls second half, tops Bonny Eagle

Gorham ramped up for the second half vs. visiting Bonny Eagle on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 29, Erin Esty finally breaking a long deadlock midway through the stretch. The Rams continued to control until the very end, ultimately taking a 2-0 W.

“It’s always good to win,” said Gorham head coach Becky Manson-Rioux simply. “But we don’t count any team out; we try to play our best game against every team.”

Bonny Eagle head coach Noelle Surette was satisfied with her girls’ effort, if not the result. “We played hard for 60 minutes,” she said. “That’s actually the best, full, 60-minute game we’ve played. It’s just: Gorham’s a good team. They’re well-coached, they’re well-disciplined and they’re confident.”

The uphill half rolled from one end of the field to the other, both squads looking particularly ferocious on defense. The Scots began to unravel a bit – perhaps from fatigue – as the break approached, allowing Gorham to generate a couple near misses. Chloe Owen in net for Bonny Eagle maintained her composure though, and even when a ball or two slipped past her, Mya Daniels in the cage behind her admirably backed her up.

Surette remarked on the unusual (but legitimate) strategy of stationing a defender behind the goalie: “We’ve done that for a couple years now; we always keep somebody in our goal cage, because we have tended to play a lot of defense in the last couple years.”

“We have a really good goalie,” Surette said, “but every once in a while, she needs some help and [Daniels] is very good at playing that last stop back there. Only a sophomore for us, but plays with upperclassman confidence. I think she had three defensive saves for us, on top of the 13 our goalie had.”

The tactic might seem like it would pull a player from elsewhere on the field, but Surette suggested otherwise” “It actually doesn’t, because we pull all but one offensive player back into the circle, to make sure we have everybody marked up,” she said. “So we rely on one of our forward line players playing the top of the circle defensively, which allows us to put that player in the cage.”

“Basically,” Surette said, “I just ask a lot of girls to play endline to endline. So they’ve got to be conditioned, got to be able to go a whole game.”

The latter half belonged almost exclusively to the Rams. They charged onto the field obviously hungry, seizing the attack early and then pressing relentlessly.

Manson-Rioux attributed the momentum swing to more cohesion and more chatter between her girls. “They played as a unit,” she said. “In the first half, they were more separate, and when you don’t play as a unit, you’re not making the connections you need to make, defensively and passing. All of that.”

“Gorham had a little more confidence than us in that second half and it showed,” said Surette. “We let them kind of control the tempo offensively and put ourselves at a bit of a disadvantage.”

Still, the Scots held the line, repelling the Rams’ every attempt, for quite some time. It wasn’t until the game entered the home stretch that the Rams managed to snap the stalemate, Esty doing the honors, assisted by Karen Stemm, at 15:14.

One goal is hardly an insurmountable lead, but Bonny Eagle’s offensive unit is relatively young, and scoring has been a challenge for the team.

“We have a lot of upperclassmen on defense,” Surette said. “And sometimes we get too comfortable relying on the girls with experience. Our forward line’s really young, so it’s just (a matter of) getting them some confidence, so when we do get the ball out defensively, we do something with it. Right now, we haven’t really found our groove offensively, because we’re so young. That’s something we’re working on.”

So when the Rams went up 2-0 with under eight minutes to play – Mary Adams hacked one home out of a scramble – the Scots’ prognosis began to look grim. Indeed, they were never able to light the lamp, and Gorham soon emerged the victors.

“We try to have the same game-plan (going into every game),” said Manson-Rioux. “The first thing we focus on is communication. Get that started; that usually gets all of our other pieces connected.”

Manson-Rioux applauded Adams in particular. “My Captain, Mary Adams, she sparked us in the second half: very good passing, good defensive stops, and just got that ball into the circle. She also inserts on corners and she has a really strong insert.”

The Rams, ranked seventh in A South at present, jumped to 7-2-2 on the result. Manson-Rioux was positive about her girls’ season thus far, as well as their prospects with the playoffs approaching.

“We tied Massabesic, we tied Thornton; we’ve played really well against some good teams. We’re right there. It’s just anybody’s game on any day. You’ve got to come to play and you’ve got to play together.” she said.

Gorham traveled to No. 5 Cheverus (7-3) on Monday, Oct. 3; they host No. 9 Windham (4-4-1) on the 5th.

No. 12 Bonny Eagle, currently a slot outside the postseason, slipped to 2-8 on the loss. The Scots would’ve been well-served by a win over the Rams, and it remains to be seen if they can sneak into the bracketing.