LEWISTON – The magical run is over for the Gorham Rams.
Michale Dakers scored a goal and earned three assists, and Brent Mayo added two goals and one helper to lift Scarborough to a 6-4 win over a speedy Gorham squad in the teams’ Western Class A semifinal hockey game at the Colisee on Friday.
“We wanted to keep it close and have a shootout,” said Gorham coach Eric Wales. “The one big thing we had going against us is that they were skating 10 or 11 forwards where we were skating eight. That caught up to us a bit.”
The Rams had avenged their only regular-season loss to Kennebunk in the quarterfinals, but even at 20-1 on the year went into Friday’s game as an underdog.
For being a Tier III team, they certainly played like a Tier I team tonight,” said Scarborough coach Jay Mazur. “I think we underestimated both of our opponents so far.”
Gorham was designated Tier III this season, its first in Class A.
The teams played see-saw in the first period, with each displaying awesome speed. Mayo gave the Storm a 1-0 lead at 5:44 with a shorthanded tally, only to watch Mark Schmidt tie the game as the same penalty expired.
Colby Keene redirected a Schmidt shot from the point on another Gorham power play at 9:49 to put the Rams ahead by one, but Derek Army finished a 2-on-0 just 29 seconds later to even things up again.
The playground-style scoring started right back up in the second when Stephen Cook slipped a shot past Gorham netminder Brendan Foley from the left circle 2:13 into the frame. Schmidt added another for Gorham at 3:35 to tie things up at three, but Mayo notched the 50th of his high school career at 9:51 to put the Red Storm back on top.
Cheverus advances
Alex Arthur wasn’t going to miss twice.
After Falmouth netminder Derek Kump stuffed the speedy forward on a breakaway at 6:01 of the second period, Arthur got a second chance. This time, he beat Kump to the glove side to put Cheverus ahead by three, all but capping off a methodical 5-2 win over Falmouth in the teams’ Western Class A semifinal matchup at the Colisee on Friday.
“The first time, I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but the second, I knew I had to put it in to put them away,” said Arthur. “We let them back in the game earlier, and we wanted to take control of the game for good.”
The Stags got two from Eugene Fitzpatrick in the first 5:11 of the first period, and overpowered Falmouth for much of the opening frame, but the Yachtsmen managed one on a Brian Greene shot at 9:06 to stay close. In the second, Paul Morrison scored off the boards on a routine dump-in play when the puck took a strange hop into the net vacated by Kump, who was out to play the wrap-around.
“When you’re the underdog and you’re not getting those bounces, it makes it that much harder,” said Falmouth coach Scott Rousseau. “We came out a bit nervous, being such a young team, but I thought we were playing well late in the first, and then that happened.”
Antoniou made it 5-1 at 14:29 of the second. In the third, Falmouth got one more goal, but never got closer.
No. 1 Cheverus will now face No. 2 Scarborough in the Western Class A final Tuesday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.
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