GORHAM – To some coaches, last year was last year. To Deering coach Mike D’Andrea, last year was also this year, or vice versa.

To give his top-seeded Rams more motivation facing No. 8 Sanford in Wednesday’s Western Class A final, did the Deering coach bring up Sanford’s upset over his team in last year’s playoffs, the Rams coach was asked.

“Absolutely,” D’Andrea said. “We played it up all week.”

Deering may not have needed the extra edge to defeat the defending Class A state champions 7-1 at Gorham High School, but it didn’t hurt.

Ryan Flaherty’s three-run single in the fourth broke open a one-run game and proved more than enough for Deering’s Ryan Reid, who allowed just two hits over six innings of work.

Flaherty’s bases-clearing safety shifted the momentum back in Deering’s favor for good after the Redskins (13-7) sliced an early 2-0 deficit in half in the top of the frame on Jason Smith’s RBI single.

Two one out walks knocked Sanford southpaw starter Ryan Bourque out of the game temporarily in favor of Smith. The right-hander induced a ground out for the second out of the inning, then hit the next batter to load the bases. That brought up Flaherty, a lefty, forcing Sanford to bring Bourque back to the mound from centerfield to try to end the threat.

Flaherty worked the count to 3-2, allowing all of the runners to take off on the payoff pitch. The sophomore delivered a sharp liner past the diving first baseman and into right field, widening the Deering lead to 5-1.

“That kind of deflated us,” said Sanford coach Mark Boissoneault “We knew with a team like Deering you’ve got to throw off their rhythm, which is why we brought Smith in. He got an out, but we had to bring Ryan back in to face the lefty when he hit the next kid.”

Deering (17-2) put the game away for good in the sixth with two more runs, helped by three Redskin errors.

Deering took a 2-0 lead in the first on a Reid RBI single and a wild pitch. Reid didn’t give up a hit to the Redskins until the fourth, when Bourque’s double preceded Smith’s run-scoring single.

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