There are Holes to Fill for Twinfield-Cabot Girls after Stellar 2021
by Ken Brown
MARSHFIELD – Head coach Seth Wilmott and his Lady Trojan soccer team broke through with the program’s most successful season in over a decade last fall, but several key departures will make it challenging to equal that same success in Wilmott’s sixth season at the helm.
Wilmott inherited a program that was fading away into the ether six years ago, but from the bottom up he rebuilt a talented young program that hosted a playoff match in 2020. The program took it another step last season by reaching the Division IV quarterfinals with their first winning record at Twinfield-Cabot since 2011. Principal Mark Mooney looks to the recent success of the soccer programs at Twinfield-Cabot as an example of the cooperative between the two schools working and credits Wilmott’s dedication to the rebuild of the girls’ program.
“Seth took over a program that was really struggling with numbers and success and has done a great job of rebuilding it with a lot of eighth and ninth graders who now have varsity experience. Their success last season is a great sign that our youth programs our getting stronger in both communities and I really credit Seth for hanging in there and continuing to teach when we were really struggling the first couple of years,” said Mooney.
Wilmott already had his hands full with the graduation losses of First Team All-Mountain League selection and team captain Eva Hebert, along with starters Nicole Gouge and Julia Light, and Makayla Quintin. It will be even more challenging with the untimely transfer of Annie Dunlop to prep school, taking her team leading 11 goals a season ago with her.
“Unfortunately we are scratching for numbers so far this fall, but we hope to recruit some more players with the start of school. We had some unexpected losses, but we still have some really good soccer players on this team. We’ll be very solid defensively and we’ll need a couple of young players to step up to lead us offensively,” said Wilmott.
Twinfield-Cabot led the Mountain League with four First Team selections last fall and Wilmott returns a pair of them to anchor the defense in Ayden Corbette and Holly Dunlop. Alice McLane, Ginger Klarich, and Camryn Hoffman should also return after breakout seasons that earned them Second Team honors. A wildcard for the Lady Trojans could be the return of Aleacya Moshinskie, who missed all of last season with a knee injury. Ida Astick also returns in goal after a full season of varsity experience under her belt. The schedule won’t be any easier for Wilmott’s squad in their second season in the Mountain League, but he enters the season with optimism, given the success his players have experienced over the past two years.
“We definitely don’t have as much maturity on this team yet, but we are returning a really good core of players, especially in the defensive third. This core group has built up a lot of confidence the last couple of seasons and they know what to expect in this league now. The girls are going to continue to recruit and try to increase our numbers and we’ll have a scrimmage this week for a final tune up to get ready for the season opener,” said Wilmott.
Twinfield-Cabot scrimmaged Burke Academy on Tuesday and they are scheduled to host Northfield-Williamstown in their season opener next Tuesday.
