By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
Senior Lainey Herring seems to be the sparkplug that ignites the Houlton Lady Shires. The Houlton girls are 9-5-1 on the season, and when Herring was held scoreless in the first four games, the team’s record dropped to 1-3.
ALMOST – Houlton freshman Abby Kinens nearly gets a foot on the ball, which is snatched up by Lee’s goalie. The Lady Shires won 4-1 and will travel to Orono for a 3 p.m. game tomorrow.
Herring rebounded and is the Lady Shires’ top scorer with 17 goals, and since her resurgence, the team is 8-2-1.
“It’s pretty apparent that the team runs through her,” said Houlton coach Tim Tweedie. “She is undoubtedly one of the top three or four players in Class C.”
However, for the sparkplug to go, there has to be fire, and other embers on the team are Chelsi Murray, second leading scorer with 10 goals, followed by freshman Abby Kinens with seven goals and senior Courtney Putnam with six.
“In all, we’ve had 14 different players scoring 62 goals,” Tweedie said.
But, a championship team needs defensive support, as well as scorers, and leading the backfield is Anna Caron.
“She is rock solid at sweeper,” said Tweedie. “She is a three-year starter and will be very hard to replace next year.
Not to be out-done is fellow All-Aroostook player, Martha McPartland, as well as seniors Erika Lackey and Colleen Fitzpatrick.
SCORERS – Leading scorers for the Houlton Lady Shires are, right, Lainey Herring and above, Chelsi Murray.
“I can’t say enough about the seasons that Coco and Erika have had,” said Tweedie. “They have been tremendous. We have had four shutouts and five games in which we allowed only one goal. So, between Madison [Lezotte at goalie] and our defense, we are hardly ever out of a game.”
Last Friday night, the Lady Shires hosted a preliminary game with Lee Academy at the Houlton High School field, taking a 4-1 victory and moving into the Class C quarterfinals.
“The game went as good as we could have hoped,” said Tweedie.
The Houlton band had the girls fired up before the game and it showed with their play, according to their coach.
“The girls were passing well, making runs without the ball, and winning all 50-50 balls,” he said. “We were a step quicker than Lee all night.”
Murray opened the scoring with a goal 10 minutes into the game, while Putnam scored the first of her two goals at the 15:50 mark of the first half. She scored the other less than a minute into the second half.
“Courtney has been playing with an injured hamstring muscle for a couple of weeks now and to come out there and play the way she did was awesome,” said Tweedie. “Courtney is a trooper.”
Houlton’s scoring was capped off by a Herring goal at the 21-minute mark. She and Amanda Fogarty each had a pair of assists on the four goals.
“It was fun to be a part of,” said Tweedie. “When our kids come out to really play soccer, we are as good as anyone in Class C. “
The Lady Shires will face top-ranked host Orono in the Class C quarterfinal game at 3 p.m. tomorrow. The game was rescheduled due to rain.
“We are very excited,” Tweedie said. “The old cliché is that we have nothing to lose, but we aren’t going in with that attitude, because we do have something to lose. We know that if we play up to our ability, we should win. We know that were are not the eighth best team in Class C and are looking at this as more like a 1 vs. 5 matchup as opposed to a 1 vs. 8. We want to prove to everyone that we belong in that top tier of teams.”
In this quarterfinal game, the Lady Shires will be relying on their seniors for leadership.
“They have been amazing this year,” Tweedie said. “I didn’t choose to name captains this year, because there were too many quality girls to pick from. Amelia [Butler], Anna, Colleen, Courtney, Erika, Lainey and Megan [Skehan] have made this season so much fun. I am going to sorely miss coaching these girls, but I’m trying to squeeze out a couple more games before they move on to the next chapters of their lives.”
