SACO — Thornton Academy got off to a good start in its playoff run by getting off to a good start in its playoff opener on Wednesday night. The fourth-seeded Trojans jumped on the scoreboard less than seven minutes in and added two more goals in the first half of a 3-0 victory over No. 5 Gorham in a Western Class A girls soccer quarterfinal at Hill Stadium.
When the two teams faced off two weeks ago in the regular season, Thornton got off to a slow start before winning 2-0. Despite not having played in a week, they didn’t have the same problem on Wednesday night.
Tori Daigle opened the scoring 6:42 in, as she received a pass from fellow senior Haley DaGraca in the right side of the box before poking a hard shot past Gorham goalie Renae Staples. Daigle called the pass from DaGraca “very perfect” and “spot on.”
“We came out on fire,” Thornton head coach Chris Kohl said of his team’s hot start. “We talked about it. We talked about just coming out with intensity and playing our game.”
“I think we were ready to go, because we knew they were going to come out with a lot of power,” said Daigle. “I think we were ready to push, and win.”
Much of the rest of the first half saw the ball get moved around between the boxes, but the Trojans struck again with time winding down in the first 40 minutes. It was the same two names for Thornton, as DaGraca took the ball into the left corner and sent a cross into the box that bounced through the defense, and Daigle was there on the right side to blast the shot in.
Daigle’s goals were her 22nd and 23rd of the season, which leads the team.
Second on the team is DaGraca, who scored her 19th goal of the season with 17 seconds left in the half, as Daigle fed her a pass to the left side, then DaGraca beat a defender one-on-one before burying a shot inside the left post.
“That was awesome. It was just big,” Kohl said of DaGraca’s goal. “Just getting that third goal creates a whole nother environment.”
“It was very big, because 2-0 is a very scary score. I think 3-0 locked it in,” said Daigle.
The assist was the 41st of Daigle’s career, which broke a tie with 2014 graduate Amanda Arnold for the most in program history. It also added another example of a close chemistry between Daigle and DaGraca on the field.
“It’s very special, because we’ve been playing together since U-12 Saco Soccer Club,” Daigle said of the relationship. “I think we get how we play and where we’re going to run. Also communication helps, too. We know each other.”
“They played really well together tonight,” Kohl said of his dynamic senior duo. “They were looking for each other.”
The Trojans carried all the momentum into halftime, but the Rams brought it out of the intermission. Gorham put Thornton’s midfielders and defenders on their heels in the early moments of the second half, but the stout, experienced squad dug those heels in and stopped the onslaught of amounting to anything.
“I think we played so well (in the first half), you’re going to see a little bit of that. And Gorham’s playing for their season,” said Kohl. “Gorham came out with some really nice intensity. I thought we played a good second half.”
Daigle said the Trojans played better after the players started motivating each other. Daigle had two solid chances ”“ and DaGraca another ”“ in the half, but were both denied by great saves by Staples and Gorham backup goalie Emma Smith, who was in net for much of the second half.
With the win, the Trojans advance to the semifinals for the sixth-consecutive season. Their opponent will be top-seeded Windham, who beat Thornton in last year’s regional final, as well as at Hill Stadium during the regular season. The Eagles had to rally back to beat Portland in their quarterfinal on Wednesday.
“I think we’re feeling good,” Daigle said of her team heading into the matchup with the Eagles. “Knowing that we’re playing Windham, we need to be ready and be ready to win it pretty much like this one.”
“We got to play well. We just got to go play well. We got to defend well, we got to play smart, we got to attack when we can,” said Kohl. “We learned a lot from the first time. We learned some things that we need to do.”
— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.
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