Statement victory

Riley Trudeau and the Cumberland girls soccer

team handed North Kingstown its first loss of

the season Wednesday.

NORTH KINGSTOWN — The Cumberland girls soccer team and undefeated North Kingstown went into halftime of Wednesday’s Division I showdown scoreless, but Clipper coach John Hoxsie had some stern words for his squad during the 10-minute intermission.

“I said to the girls at halftime, ‘I’m going to tell you something I haven’t said to you all season, you’re not the better team on the field right now,’” Hoxsie said. “They had some opportunities, but our defense did a good job of recovering and JJ [Juliette Vemmer] did a great job in net. The second half kind of turned a little bit.”

Cumberland responded in the second half and forward Riley Trudeau netted the game-winning goal 15 minutes into the half to lead the Clippers to a 1-0 road win over the first-place Skippers. Vemmer, who allowed two goals for the first time all season on Saturday, was back to her best, recording 10 saves for her sixth shutout.

Cumberland (10-2-1 Division I) is now La Salle’s biggest fan because if the reigning state champion Rams beat the Skippers and South Kingstown to finish the season then the Clippers will be the No. 2 seed in the playoffs because they win tiebreakers with both South County teams. Of course, Cumberland has to win its remaining games with Portsmouth and Prout.

“We’re clearly rooting for La Salle the rest of the way,” Hoxsie said. “We’re looking at a seed from anywhere from two to four right now, which is fantastic.”

North Kingstown (10-1-1 Division I) hadn’t been held scoreless this season, but the Skippers ran into the second strongest defense in the division. Hoxsie scrapped his threeback defense and went with four defenders to slow down Sadie Souls and the regionally-ranked Skippers.

Led by senior all-division central defender Abby Free and Vemmer, the Clippers kept the game scoreless until Trudeau could use her speed to open the scoring in the 55th minute. Hoxsie also credited the play of left back Liliana Lachance, right back Grace Vieira and central defender Bella Luca.

“We held on defensively and it was a great game to watch,” Hoxsie said. “Both teams worked their butts off. The big thing after Saturday is we were able to hold the lead for the final 25 minutes against the number one team that hadn’t lost all year and scored goals against everybody. That was a very good bounce back.”