WESTMINSTER, Vt. — Proctor High senior Allie Almond stepped into a long-distance shot five minutes into Saturday’s VPA Division IV girls soccer final. The blast, a good 20 yards in distance, seemed destined for the upper right corner of the Rivendell Academy net, and Raptor goalkeeper Cora Day could only sigh in relief when the ball skimmed off the crossbar and out of trouble.
With that, the shooting gallery opened for business.
Maddie Flanders turned a pair of Maggie McKearin passes into first-half scores en route to a three-goal hat trick, ultimately powering the top-ranked Phantoms to a 6-0 win over No. 3 Rivendell at Bellows Falls Union High School. Proctor, making its ninth straight VPA D-IV title game appearance, won for the sixth time during that stretch, returning to the summit after a two-year absence.
Proctor (17-1-0) amassed 34 shot attempts to Rivendell’s five and put 16 of them on frame. The Phantoms’ skill on attack overtook Raptor efforts to keep Flanders and McKearin to their weaker left sides while seeking to counter with their own speed.
“They never let down; they never stopped trying,” Rivendell coach Tim Goodwin said of his squad. “This year has been something really special for all of us. We’ve gone through a lot, made it to the finals. Runners-up doesn’t feel good at this moment, but they’ll be able to come back to school, see that plaque on the wall. … I’m proud of them.”
Flanders’ trifecta pushed her to 30 goals on the season. She added an assist as well on McKearin’s clincher with 12:05 to play. Jenna Davine and Almond also scored for the Phantoms.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs through the year,” Proctor co-coach Scott French said. “One of our top players was out for about a month and a half. Our starting center mid re-broke her arm in the second game, so we played with a lot of new players in the back. But we started really coming together the way we wanted to when the playoffs started, and we continued to build as the playoffs have gone on.”
The Raptors (11-7-0) needed their defense to work as a unit and deny the Phantoms space to succeed. That meant closing down on Proctor scoring chances and blocking shots, which Rivendell did on back-to-back Flanders bids on one early possession. Raptor defenders finished with nine blocks on the day.
Rivendell also needed to use its speed on the counterattack to create what few opportunities it would get. That nearly worked on a 16th-minute Sienna Carter through ball that senior Mikayla Stever nearly caught before Proctor goalkeeper Rachel Stuhmueller (three saves) swallowed up the ball.
The Phantoms opened the scoring on the next time up the field, McKearin finding Flanders on the right flank for a low, hard drive at 15:40.
“We were looking to spring Mikayla and to spring Sienna,” Goodwin said. “We did that early in the game, and then they scored right afterward. But that was what we were looking for, to stay underneath them and defend really well.”
Flanders still kept finding her potent right foot and punished the Raptors with it.
The senior doubled Proctor’s lead at 23:27, again on a McKearin feed, again from the right side of the Rivendell penalty area. A 20-yard right-foot bomb curled around Day at 45:53 to make it 3-0 and give Flanders a natural hat trick.
Davine scored unassisted after beating a Rivendell defender one-on-one at 50:52, and Almond found the target from outside the box at 52:14. Goodwin gave Day the day off from there, having seen his starting keeper and tri-captain make eight solid saves — including a superb diving denial of McKearin five minutes into the second half — on an afternoon where few goalies would have stopped what Proctor delivered.
McKearin notched her 27th goal of the year to close the scoring at 67:55, sneaking a shot under reserve Rivendell netminder Kendyl Boisvert (three saves).
“I think we’re a solid D-IV team; I think we proved that with a tough game in the semis with West Rutland,” Goodwin said. “It was a tough game here.”
Corner Kicks: Stever, who needed help off the field with leg cramps in that semifinal win over West Rutland last week, needed it again on Saturday after foot-to-foot contact with a Proctor defender in the 55th minute. The senior returned but, clearly hobbling, left for good in the 72nd. … The Raptors also lost freshman midfielder Ryleigh Butler to an ankle injury just two minutes into the match. … Proctor is now 7-5-1 all-time in VPA girls soccer finals, all in D-IV. The Phantoms lost the last two D-IV championship contests to Arlington by identical 3-0 scores. … The Raptors were in their first title game since winning the D-IV championship in 2010. Goodwin was an assistant to coach Hank Tenney on that team. … The Raptors graduate Stever, Carter, Boisvert, Moria Haehnel, Elizabeth Noyes, Rachel O’Hearn and Katelyn Woodbeck.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.