Positive attitude key for Fort Fairfield girls soccer

13 years ago

By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter

FORT FAIRFIELD — Coach Kerrie Alley’s Tiger girls soccer team has been unable to get past the quarterfinal round of the playoffs during each of her six years as the head coach, but hopes are high that this could be the season the team advances farther into the post-season.

She called 2010 a “great rebuilding year” as the team started four freshmen in the middle of the field. “Our knowledge of the game increased and we were starting to see passing patterns on the field and were able to build a solid defense.”

That has carried over into the current campaign as the Tigers are off to a 5-2 start and are currently in second place, behind undefeated Washburn, in the Eastern Maine Class D standings.

Fort Fairfield has a 24-player roster, down one from a year ago. The Tigers lost two valuable senior leaders from the 2010 squad, but Alley said the verbal leadership has improved throughout the current campaign.

“Keeping a positive attitude will be a key to our success,” she said. “I believe that we will finish in the top four, but the key will be playing as a team and believing in each other.”

The highest quality victory the team has secured this season came against Van Buren in the home opener Aug. 15. The Tigers have also beaten a talented Easton team on two occasions and own single victories over both Limestone-MSSM and Ashland. The losses came at Van Buren and at Washburn in back-to-back matches played Aug. 27 and Sept. 1.

The Tigers play five more games the remainder of this month, beginning today with a home contest against Katahdin. Fort Kent, Central Aroostook and Limestone-MSSM close out the September slate. The team then has an 11-day layoff before coming out of the harvest break with four more matches (three to be played at home) to close out the regular season.

Fort Fairfield’s starting group includes strikers Kylie Plourde and Lindsey Graves, midfielders Kacie York, Jessica Goshorn, Sydney Churchill, Logan Bubar and Janae Libby and defenders Danielle Tracy, Abbey Player and Nicole Giberson in front of veteran goalkeeper Katy Donovan.

The substitutes are strikers Rebecca Theriault, Ashley Levesque, Kelsey Turner, Keegan Watt and Kalena Pearce, midfielders Shyla Bouchard, Sarah Owens and Emily Blaisdell and defenders Ciara Campbell, Lauren Edgecomb, Megan Kennedy, Megan Jellison and Erin Williams. Jellison also serves as Donovan’s backup in goal.