Red Hot Lady Bears Carry Momentum into Postseason
by Ken Brown
DANVILLE – The Danville-Twinfield-Cabot (CCSU) girls’ soccer team continued to play their best soccer of the season last week, blanking Enosburg and Richford to wrap up their regular season, making them a very dangerous team heading into the Division III tournament.
Leah Klark turned away 21 shots to preserve the shutout as the Lady Bears dominated Division II Enosburg 3-0 last Tuesday on Senior Night.
Hazel Abetti, Eliska Siebenbrunner, and Ida Astick scored a goal apiece to power the CCSU offense, with Carley Mancini assisting on two scores.
Bethany Guyette made six saves in the loss as the Lady Hornets fell to 3-10-1. Enosburg will square off against second-seeded Milton in the first round of the Division II playoffs. Seniors Alice McLane, Camryn Hoffman, Jasmine Reason, and Tieghan Perry were recognized before the match for their outstanding high school careers.
“We played a fantastic game on Senior Night. We really did a good job of possessing and mostly forcing Enosburg to take low quality shots. That said, Leah came up with a couple of highlight reel saves in the final 10 minutes to preserve the shutout. Our sweeper Cam Hoffman played a very active game that shut down the corners of our backfield and our forwards played great two-way ball,” said head coach Spencer Morse.
Abetti continued to power the CCSU offense over the weekend, ripping the back of the net four times and assisting on another in a dominant 6-0 road win over Richford.
Twinfield-Cabot’s Alice McLane and Carley Mancini recorded a goal and an assist apiece to help put the match out of reach.
Sloane Morse and Jasmine Reason chipped in with an assist apiece. Klark made 13 more saves to post the third straight shutout for the Lady Bear defense.
Vanessa Tessier made 10 stops for Richford as they suffered their eighth straight loss.
“It was a rainy day on a rough field that had some standing water in places. Our girls wanted to prove to themselves that our loss to Richford earlier in the season was a fluky game for us. Hazel had a career day and Leah was solid under incredibly difficult muddy conditions in the goal areas. Our team defense was incredible, with special shout outs to Cam, Sloane, and Jorja Washburn on shutting down their top scorers,” said Morse.
In the inaugural season of the CCSU cooperative between the three schools, Morse had the difficult task of creating team chemistry that translates to success on the field. With a full regular season now under their belt, Morse’s squad is clicking on all cylinders and will be a tough out in the upcoming tournament.
“This is what I saw in this talented group of girls from day one. The most impressive thing about them all is how great they get along with each other. It has made my job of meshing this team together so much easier. The toughest thing for me was learning the strengths of all my new players and how to best utilize their talents and for them to just learn each other’s tendencies. They are an unselfish group that have really bought in to our possession philosophy. I tip my cap to the Twinfield-Cabot players for their dedication to playing soccer, while needing to learn a new system with added travel time,” said Morse.
The Lady Bears traveled to sixth-ranked Lake Region on Tuesday in the opening round of the Division III playoffs. If they pull an upset, they will face the winner of the Windsor-Springfield match-up in the second round on Friday.
