The Houlton High School girls opened their season with a 3-1 win over visiting Madawaska last Friday night.
Abby Kinens scored her first varsity goal to open the game when she outhustled Madawaska’s goalie, knocking the ball loose and finishing the play on an open net.
The Lady Shires scored their eventual winning and insurance goals from Vanessa Sanderson and Courtney Putnam. Putnam and freshman Amanda Fogarty also added assists for the winners.
Scoring early proved beneficial to the Lady Shires, as Madawaska applied pressure to Houlton’s defense in the closing minutes of the game, making several runs on goal, but coming up empty.
“We controlled the pace of the game for the first 60 minutes,” said Houlton coach Tim Tweedie. “The girls played an extremely smart game, following the game plan to a ‘T’. We talked about shutting down their top player (Sue Lavertu) and making the rest of their team beat us. We also wanted to play aggressive offensively and try to score the first goal. Our defense did a tremendous job, and [goalie] Madison Lezotte played an outstanding game.”
The Lady Shires are anchored by a strong core of seniors — Lainey Herring, Megan Skehan, Erika Lackey, Anna Caron, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Amelia Butler and Putnam — coupled with outstanding young players, who are already contributing to the team.
“We have several key freshmen, sophomore and juniors who returning, as well,” said Tweedie. “As good as this group of seniors are, many of the underclassmen are further along in their development than the seniors were at their age. So, I really don’t expect a dropoff in our level of play even after the seniors move on.”
Tweedie believes he has a team with the potential to make some noise in the postseason.
“I think we have the ability make a very serious run deep in the Eastern Maine tournament,” he said. “We are a much more balanced team than we had been in my first two seasons, and part of the reason why, is because we have the ability to play either style of soccer controlled or boot-‘n-run.”
Tweedie said the future of girl’s soccer looks bright at Houlton, as his players have worked hard through the summer to get ready for this year.
“The girls put in a ton of time this summer playing basketball and soccer,” he said. “We played a very full schedule of tournaments and games this summer, including an overnight camping trip to the Augusta area to play. This group of girls just love to play sports, and it shows on the field.”