HEBRON — A day after falling to the South Windsor Bobcats, the RHAM Raptors boys soccer team bounced back by pulling away to roll past the Windsor Warriors 4-0 on Tuesday afternoon.

RHAM wraps up the regular season at 8-4-4 following their victory in their season finale. The Raptors won’t be an easy out in the state tournament, as the four teams they lost to this season were Avon (11-2-3), Glastonbury (11-2-2), Tolland (12-2-2), and South Windsor (12-2-2), finishing with a combined record of 46-8-6.

Following the win, the RHAM head coach said what stood out to him was the team connecting their passes better. He added he saw improvement from Monday, which led to more opportunities. Specifically, the team wasn't as bunched up.

“It was our offensive spacing,” Bell said. “We weren’t so tight where we were giving the ball to guys with three defenders all over them.”

After RHAM struck first in the opening 10 minutes on a goal from Rojas, senior Caiden Rojas slid one past the goalie with his right foot, doubling RHAM’s lead.

For the final 21:55 after he netted the goal, there were no more goals the rest of the way.

Windsor's best chance to get on the board came five minutes following RHAM taking a 2-0 lead. The Warriors drilled the crossbar head-on.

RHAM then cleared it out of the box to prevent Windsor from cutting their lead in half

In the final, Windsor shot a prayer from distance that the RHAM goalie saved.

As a result, RHAM was in good shape heading into the half, carrying a 2-0 lead.

A pivotal moment that helped RHAM pull away came with under 17 minutes left.

Windsor had a golden opportunity to cut the deficit to one, but couldn’t capitalize since they hit the post.

RHAM immediately made Windsor pay the price for no cashing in when they were on the doorstep. Junior Callan Melquist delivered the knockout punch 1:03 later to secure the win. He froze the goalie and drilled it in the back of the net to give RHAM a 3-0 lead with 16:44 left in the second half.

He continued to be a menace on the field. Windsor couldn’t figure out how to contain him as he found the back of the net four minutes later to grow the lead to four. There were 12:08 to play when he found the net.

Trying to claim a hat trick, Windsor committed a foul in the box on him that led to a corner kick. However, the Windsor goalie saved it, denying him the feat in a 10-minute span.

RHAM then nailed one off the crossbar, so Windsor escaped the box without scoring one more before time expired.

Since RHAM won’t be in the conference tournament, the team will shift their attention to preparing for the first round of the state tournament that will start on Friday, Nov. 6, or Nov. 7. 

When asked what his team needs to do to go on a deep run, Bell gave his answer.

“I think we’ve got to be mentally tough and more tenacious defensively to prevent them from getting the ball, so we can turn them over and attack,” Bell said “We’re going to work on competing against each other.”