Stonington girls win 10th straight, clinch ECC Div. II crown
Ledyard — Whatever plagued the Stonington girls' soccer team last year, mainly injuries in a 6-10-1 season with the Bears barely scraping by into the Class M state tournament, there seems to be no lingering effects, no rebuilding process.
Coach Jen Solomon's team has gone straight to the top, clinching the title Friday in a particularly difficult pack of Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II teams with a 3-0 victory at Ledyard.
That made 10 straight wins for Stonington, dating back more than a month to its only loss of the season against Chariho (R.I.) on Sept. 10. The Bears are 11-1 overall, 6-0 in ECC Division II, two games ahead of second-place Bacon Academy with two division games remaining but in control of the tiebreaker over the Bobcats.
“Honestly, we haven't even spoke about last season,” Solomon said of the complete flip of the Bears' script. “Last season was one of those where as a program and a school, you hit the injury bug and that's what hit us. But it helped. It gave a lot of the players who are younger some varsity experience and those players carried that in.”
“I feel like this year we came in with more confidence,” Stonington senior forward Carly Constantine said, “because we were adding more numbers to the roster. In summer league, the freshmen were really stepping up and doing really well. It just kind of clicked this season way more natural than last season ... it just looks like we're all so connected.”
Stonington, playing its third game in four days, defeated second-place Bacon 2-1 on Wednesday to set up Friday's clincher, although Solomon said that wasn't something she was keeping track of as the Bears faced off against Ledyard.
Constantine scored Stonington's first goal 14 minutes, 11 seconds in on an assist by freshman Lily Loughlean and about three and a half minutes later Constantine had the assist for freshman Finnella O'Keefe for a 2-0 lead at the half. Stonington starts three freshmen.
Sophomore Maya Terwilliger scored the third goal unassisted 10:16 into the second half. The Bears outshot Ledyard 16-3, with Stonington goalie Kelsea Anderson earning the shutout.
Ledyard unloaded four consecutive corner kicks in a three-minute span in the second half, with the Colonels' Delaney Vaudrey alternating kicks from the right and the left. Ledyard couldn't crack the Stonington de
fense, however, with Anderson saving two of the corner kicks directly.
Bella Drummond made 12 saves for Ledyard (7-3-1, 2-3-1), which moved up from Division III to Division II this season after winning the ECC’s Division III-IV tournament last season.
“They’re crushing it,” Ledyard coach Emily Lehet said of what makes Stonington such a strong opponent. “They always know where their teammates are. They’re moving the ball quickly, they’re not wasting time with it. That’s the secret, honestly.”
Lehet said that for moving up a division, Ledyard has done better than any expectations she might have had.
“A little daunting coming into the season,” she said with a laugh. “Every game, we’ve got a game now but it’s been working out pretty well.”
Solomon called the Stonington players “just a great group to coach,” one which she never doubted would compete as the new season began.
“They’re very good players. I have some very good soccer players. They’re very technical, some great soccer IQs,” Solomon said. “I’m just using that to my advantage in the sense that they’re doing a lot of the hard stuff. They’re easy to coach. They get it and we’re growing and getting better each game.”