Staff Writer
The Limestone/MSSM girls soccer team features as balanced a team as you’ll see as far as representatives from each grade level is concerned.
LADY EAGLE SOCCER TEAM – Members of the Limestone/MSSM girls varsity soccer team are, in front from left, Tabatha Lalonde, Ashlynn Kelly, Hunter Smith, Jasmine Cote, Kellie Peers, Victoria St. Pierre, Myley Denslow, Karen Page and Katrina Lalonde. Back row, manager Aaron St. Pierre, Chelsea Campbell, Monique Waugh, Stephanie Leighton, Rylee Leighton, Caitlin Good, Audra Kirk, Stacy Bernier, Eva Smith, Lanae Denslow, Shannon Leighton, Amanda Allen and coach Brad Nadeau.
The Lady Eagles have a roster made up of five seniors, five juniors, five sophomores and five freshmen, and first-year head coach Brad Nadeau is hoping the ingredients lead to berth into the Eastern Maine Class D playoffs.
Nadeau served as an assistant coach last year and has even more prior experience, serving as athletic director of the Keflavik Youth Athletic Association at Keflavik Naval Air Station in Iceland from 2001-2004. He also coached a semi-professional team for the naval base.
The new coach isn’t one to script a starting lineup from the beginning of the year and stay with it. He admits he only decides on starters hours before a particular matchup.
His senior group includes captains Stacy Bernier and Kellie Peers, along with Jessica Bradley, Myley Denslow and Eva Smith.
Bernier plays the stopper back position and her “presence on the field is noted by all opposing players,” according to Nadeau. Peers is the striker and she constantly sees double- and triple-teaming by the opposition because of her “ability to score at will,” says Nadeau.
Bradley brings plenty of enthusiasm to her defensive position as a first-year player, while Denslow is a solid midfielder and Smith a center midfielder who is one of the team’s most aggressive ball winners.
Victoria St. Pierre is another captain as a junior, and she is an excellent utility player who produces results no matter where she is on the field, according to her coach. The other juniors are Monique Waugh, a smart defensive wing; Rylee Leighton, a striker who is always where she needs to be when the ball is moved up field; Jasmine Cote, a fast offensive wing; and Caitlin Good, a defensive wing and backup goalkeeper who has developed into a force on the defensive end of the field.
The sophomore contingent includes keeper Audra King, who Nadeau believes is one of the best in Aroostook County. Casey Thornton, a Maine School of Science and Mathematics student, is a sweeper back who is an all-around good athletes and has brought a new perspective to the team with the style of soccer she plays. Lanae Denslow is a very fast and skilled midfielder, Ashlynn Kelly an “impenetrable sweeper” and Katrina Lalonde a very smart defensive wing.
For freshmen, Stephanie Leighton is one of the fastest players on the team, but has been playing with a chipped bone in her right foot. She has goal-scoring potential, Nadeau said. Shannon Leighton, like St. Pierre, has the ability to play many positions on the field. Offensive wing Amanda Allen scored a goal earlier in the season against Wisdom, while Karen Page is a defensive presence at stopper and Hunter Smith is a strong-willed player in the midfield rotation.
Nadeau says his goal is simply “to win as many games as possible” the rest of the way and “hopefully do very well in the post-season.” The Eagles are currently 5-6 and in fifth place.
