Repeating as regional champion is never easy. Repeating three times? Remarkable. Repeating a fourth time after graduating 20 players over the last two years? Unheard of. But that is exactly what Eastern Tech’s girls’ soccer team and their coach Kim Williams have accomplished.
The Mavericks’ relentless offensive attack fired off 40 total shots in a lopsided 6-0 victory over Chesapeake, Tuesday afternoon in Essex. In Williams eight years of coaching, Eastern Tech has now claimed the 2A North Region title four years in a row. Senior Jamie Richardson accounted for two goals while freshman goalies Elise Thompson and Erika Proulx combined for the shutout.
“We’re a very young squad. It’s been a tough year with lots of hard work and we’ve come a long way,” said Williams. “We wanted to come in and take charge of this game right away.”
Senior Ashley Kroll, juniors Tiffini Rolfe and Breanna Gain, and sophomore Candace Middleton added scores for the Mavericks. Chesapeake goalie Fei Mancho had 14 saves in the losing effort.
Although the Bayhawks fell short of their bid to win their first regional title, coach Powell Cucchiella remained positive about his team’s future.
“This is the first time this team has won the division and this is also the first time we’ve had 10 wins in a season,” said Cucchiella. “Both of those are feats we are very proud of as a team and we’re looking forward to next year.”
Eastern Tech (10-5-2) will square off against Glenelg (12-3-2), which downed Southern-AA, 2-0, on Tuesday, in the state semifinals, Friday at Bel Air High School (Time TBA). While reaching the Final Four may be a common occurrence to the Mavericks, the majority of their roster will be in unfamiliar territory.
“We’ve graduated twenty in two years. We have a lot of sophomores, a handful of juniors, and a very small group of seniors,” said Williams. “But we’ve had a lot of tough games that we stayed in and won and I think we have the ability on Friday to advance if we come out with our A game.”
Richardson, one of four seniors on the team, echoes Williams sentiment and understands her role as a leader on the team.
“We are ready to take care of business. All four years I’ve always been one of the younger girls, but now I have had to be more of a leader and really step it up and teach some of the younger girls what it’s about.”
