Sunapee
Sunapee High girls soccer senior Maddie Austin scored her 100th career point and the defending NHIAA Division IV champion Lakers, who have not lost since the 2015 semifinals, got over a sluggish start to down Moultonborough, 4-0, on a muggy Monday afternoon.
Somehow Austin was kept out of the loop as to how close she was to hitting the 100-point plateau, so when the game was stopped as she registered her third point of the day, she didn’t know what was going on. It took an announcement to the crowd and the arrival of her parents before she figured it out.
“Honest, I had no idea,” said Austin “I think it’s a great, but I can’t thank my teammates enough. They get me the ball and make it easier for me.”
Sunapee coach Myles Cooney kept mum on the milestone for a reason.
“This is a team game, and Maddie is a team player,” he said. “She’s unselfish and gives up the ball to her teammates, and that was the goal today. It was about winning the game.”
Austin’s point total is even more impressive given that, for the most part, she did it in three years. Austin missed almost all of her freshman season recovering from a torn knee ligament sustained as a middle-school skier.
Austin was blanked in a less-than-stellar first half by the Lakers, who beat Moultonborough, 5-1, earlier this season.
Austin didn’t get many scoring opportunities as the Mules marked her heavily. But the longer the Lakers (8-0-0) were able to take advantage of their depth, the wider the field became for Austin, who had two goals and an assist in the second half.
She also admitted that she played a little differently in the second half as she seem re-energized when the scoring lanes opened.
“No doubt about that,” she said. “When I see a chance to score, I just tell my self I’ve got to go.”
Winning soccer games is nothing new for the Lakers, even as graduation took nine players from last year’s team. Sunapee has gone 26-0-1 since a 4-3 loss to Derryfield in the D-IV semifinals nearly two years ago.
“It’s just the culture here,” said Cooney. “We do the right things. We go into the season feeling good about ourselves because we put in the work in the summer.”
And Cooney doesn’t see the trend coming to an end, pointing out that his freshman daughter, Hannah, started the day with 20 points and her ninth-grade teammate, Abby Pollari, had 16.
“We’re going to lose eight seniors from this team, but we’ll still be OK,” said Cooney, who owns a 160-43-9 record over 12 years, with four trips to the state finals and three championships.
However, Cooney would be the first to admit that Monday’s win was not one of the team’s better efforts.
“We just couldn’t get going in the first half,” said Cooney.
Which surprised sophomore Ellie Frederick.
“You know, at practice yesterday we talked about upping our intensity,” said Frederick. “We wanted to increase our effort. It didn’t happen right away.”
While the Lakers had some scoring opportunities in the first half, it was just a 1-0 game at the break thanks to a goal from senior Jackie Balch with 4:49 left in the half set up by a long Hannah Cooney pass. The second half was a different story as the Lakers outshot the Panthers, 10-0.
Austin assisted Cooney to make it 2-0. Austin, who admits her eyes light up and the speed kicks in when she sees a scoring chance, added the final two goals on breakaways, her 100th point coming with 20:50 to play. Star Lucas had an assist on the final goal.
Sunapee goalkeeper Suzanne Rickard had to make one save.
The Lakers host Wilton-Lyndeborough on Thursday.