Lady Eagles - Class A State Soccer Champs - By Stephanie Coffin

The Lady Eagles Girls varsity soccer team’s week in review in three easy steps: 

1. Monday - Coach Lebel gives birth to baby Benjamin.

2. Wednesday - the Lady Eagles win the Class A Western Maine Regional Finals against Thornton Academy.

3. Saturday - the Lady Eagles become Class A State Champions!

Top-ranked Windham hosted number three Thornton Academy Wednesday night under the lights at the Windham High School Stadium. Coach Lebel, who gave birth to her son on Monday, came to cheer her girls on along with the fans for both teams. The photographers were surrounding the soccer field ready to capture the moment in picture as we all waited to see who would be crowned champion.

The Lady Eagles took an early lead in both drive and desire by keeping the ball in Thornton Academy’s territory for most of the first half. Sophomore Ciera Berthiaume scored Windham’s first goal showing TA that she was here to play and to the delight of the Eagles Nest crowd making the game 1-0. Senior Jenna Soucy showed TA’s defense that she also was here to perform and could get by their defense to score the second goal for Windham.

 The second half started with Windham 2 – TA 0. However, the TA’s offense must have gotten a pep talk by their coach because they stepped up their game scored their first goal within two minutes of half time. The game continued as a fast paced, aggressive performance from both sides that was just too exciting to remain seated. Emily Gilman and a TA player collided that resulted in the TA player sitting out the remainder of the game. 

Ciara Berthiaume scored again with an assist from Cassie Symonds, making the score Windham-3 to TA-1. TA rallied back with back to back goals tying and forcing the championship game into overtime.

The first 15-minute overtime period went scoreless making the fans wonder if it will all come down to penalty kicks as the semifinal game against Scarborough did. Moving in to the second overtime period with 10:47 left to play, Berthiaume forces TA to a corner kick. Kicking the ball low, Berthiaume found senior Emily Gorrivan as she made her way through the TA players using her body to drive the ball home. Gorrivan, not even realizing or believing what she had just done took a moment to realize that she made the Lady Eagles champions!

As the Lady Eagles headed to states on Saturday in Bath against the Bangor Rams they carried with them their motto “Offense wins games but defense wins championships”. 

And that is just what happened on Saturday, the offense took charge of the game out shooting Bangor with shots on goal 38-8. While the defense kept the ball from getting too close to goalkeeper Kate Kneeland and the net by keeping the ball over the midfield line.

The first half of the game went scoreless. However, 51 seconds into the second half Ciera Berthiaume accepted a pass from Shannon Valente to score the first of three goals for the Lady Eagles. Once the momentum started there was no stopping the girls from Windham. Luisa Sbardella scored the second goal of the game 27 minutes later when she accepted a pass from Jenna Soucy and out maneuvered Bangor’s defender for the ball. Jenna Soucy wrapped up the third goal about three minutes later when she accepted a pass from Emily Gorrivan while making her way past three Bangor defenders to find her way into the net. 

The Rams were trying their best throughout the game to bring the ball into Windham territory, while Cassie Symonds, Shannon Valente and Katie Herzig continued their efforts to push the ball back and block any attempts made by Bangor. The Rams were successful a few times and got down field, however, the Lady Eagle defenders consisting of Emily Gilman, Ariana Davidson, Lauren Shoemaker, Laura McKenna, Jordan Sargent and Hannah Haskell just would not allow that to happen and made the Rams go home scoreless.

The ‘Eagles Nest’ classmates came to Bath to cheer on their Lady Eagles and it was exciting to see all the fans, parents, family, and friends and school faculty that were there also to support them. It was a great year to be a part of this team in any of these positions. The team is made up of a wonderful bunch of girls, great parents, great fan support and great coaching. Fans can’t wait to see what happens next year.

Congratulations Windham Lady Eagles Varsity Girls Soccer!