It took the Rams most of a half to do so, but they finally penetrated a solid Blazes defense Saturday evening. Gorham’s Kate Hopkins made the most of a momentary Westbrook breakdown to slip through the middle of the chaos and deposit the game’s first – and last – goal. The Rams took the W, 1-0, eliminating the Blazes from the playoffs and powering themselves to the quarterfinals.

Asked about the close call, Gorham head coach Jeanne Zarrilli chuckled a little.

“You always hope it’s going to be a little bit easier. I knew [Westbrook was] going to come to play hard. They’re a very well-coached team, they’re aggressive – they didn’t give us any time on the ball, to their credit. They made it really difficult. Kudos to them.”

Zarrilli recapped the goal: “We scored in the first half, finally. [Westbrook] was collecting in front of the net, so we finally got a quick break through. Kate just kind of tucked it, near post.”

By the numbers, the game should perhaps have been wider-open, higher-scoring in Gorham’s favor. The victory, after all, moves the Rams to 11-4 in 2014; they entered the tournament with double Westbrook’s win percentage, ranked fifth to the Blazes’ 12th in an extremely competitive division.

“We’ve been struggling to finish, a lot, this year,” Zarrilli said. “And [Westbrook] put a lot of defensive pressure; they played really hard.

“Defensively we’re really solid; we play soccer, we just have a hard time finding the back of the net sometimes. Some games it’s easier than others. We continue to work on that.

“But some players have stepped up, players have improved during the course of the season. We’ve made some changes.”

A peek at Gorham’s performances in the past several weeks illuminates Zarrilli’s point. The Rams have limited their opponents – nearly all of them, including the likes of Scarborough – to no more than two goals; even the mighty Windham only hashed three against Gorham. So their defense presents an opposing edifice. Meanwhile, their offense has built a number of three- or four-goal games. Now, three or four goals is a lot in a soccer match, but at the high school level especially, it’s hardly an upper limit. Windham, by comparison, won four of their regular-season bouts 10-0.

While Westbrook retires for the year at 5-10, Gorham take another step forward in the postseason. Their homefield win bumps the Rams to 11-4 on the season; they travel to 12-2 Thornton, ranked fourth, for a 6 p.m. quarterfinals battle on Wednesday the 29^th, after the American Journal’s deadline.

“We know [Thornton] very well at their place a couple weeks ago,” Zarrilli said. “So we played them very recently. It’ll be a good game, I hope.” Zarrilli noted that, in Gorham’s last meeting with the Trojans, a couple of her girls suffered concussions. She’s optimistic they’ll be back for the quarterfinals bout.

Kate Hopkins had the game’s one – and only – goal.Westbrook’s Hayley Grover and Gorham’s Emily Bragg converge on the ball.Gorham’s Emily Bragg boots the ball upfield as two Blazes pinch in on her.Westbrook middie Sophie Manning kicks the ball ahead as time winds down and her squad desperately looks to answer Gorham’s first-half goal.Westbrooker Alexa Lynham harangues the Rams’ Kate Hopkins.

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