WINDSOR — If ever there was a playoff season in which seeds mattered not at all, Tyler Post believes this is it.
He should know. His 10th-seeded Stowe High girls soccer team is headed to the VPA Division III championship game after Lucia Lovell’s 75th-minute goal sent the Raiders to a 1-0 semifinal upset of No. 3 Windsor on Wednesday afternoon at MacLeay-Royce Field.
Already vanquishers of three-time champion Thetford, Stowe (5-6-0) needed the game’s most important bounce to go its way, and it did. Following an Olivia Gianni corner kick into goalmouth traffic, the bounding ball appeared to ricochet off Lovell’s left elbow before settling at her right foot. She then rolled a 16-yarder with just enough pace to get by Windsor goalkeeper Adi Prior inside the left post with 5:24 left in regulation.
“Seeding really doesn’t matter that much this year, to be honest with you,” the Stowe coach said. “We saw in Stowe the No. 15 seed in D-II (Lake Region) beat our No. 2 boys. … Our seed didn’t indicate how we played through the year. I felt like we had a good team throughout, and sometimes things don’t break the way you want them to.”
Although the Yellowjackets (10-2-0) — playing the third state semifinal in program history, their first since 2003 — had their scoring chances, a lack of a good first touch hampered much of their strategy.
Without it, Windsor couldn’t stretch Stowe’s backs across the width of the field, which kept the Jacks from getting prolific scorers Elliot Rupp and Evelyn Page in position to threaten the Stowe net.
“Our first touch was off, and we were kind of playing kickball with them,” fourth-year Windsor coach Jeff Bachey said. “We kind of played down to our opponent’s level. We didn’t play the way we normally play.
“I know it’s frustrating for the girls, because we couldn’t string two passes together. And that’s how we’ve had our success all season, by moving the ball quickly around the field and putting on the high pressure. We definitely had the high pressure; we were just missing the second aspect of it of making smart passes and smart plays.”
Neither team generated much of an attack over the opening 40 minutes of a sun-splashed semifinal. Rupp, owner of an Upper Valley-best 19 goals entering the contest, had four of Windsor’s five first-half shots, but her corner-kick pass to set up a 25th-minute bid from Morgan McKeen held the most menace.
McKeen got her foot on a one-timer that Stowe goalkeeper Anika Wagner (six saves) lunged to her left to smother.
Page almost got Windsor on the board two minutes into the second half on another Rupp corner. A give-and-go led to a Rupp cross that the Jacks’ Kate Murphy knocked back to Page for a 14-yard left-side line drive that clanked the outside of the left post.
Without better control on the ball, however, Windsor left itself to hit and hope.
“I play a possession style with high pressure from my defense,” Bachey said. “I like to move the ball east to west rather than north to south. The idea is smart, quick touches; it’s getting your body in the right position so you can continue the ball moving from left to right or right to left. They’ve really bought into it; they really love it. It’s a team style; it’s not, ‘Here’s an all-star; now go play.’ ”
Stowe center backs Lucy Genung and Malinn Sigler kept Rupp to low-percentage scoring opportunities the rest of the day. Holly Putnam had Windsor’s last best chance, a volley attempt on a 64th-minute Rupp cross that bounded wide right.
Despite the defeat, the Jacks continue to progress. Bachey wanted to change the school’s girls soccer culture when he took over the program four years ago. Windsor had never hosted a semifinal before Wednesday; that they did gives him hope for the future.
“Any given day, I’ll play Stowe again,” Bachey said. “Nine times out of 10, I’ll walk away victorious.”
Just not on this day, regardless of what the seed chart said.
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Corner Kicks: Prior finished with four saves for the Jacks. … Windsor freshman midfielder Olivia MacLeay left the match with 8:52 to play after knee-to-knee contact with Stowe’s Isabella Mitchell near midfield. MacLeay didn’t return. … The Jacks are now 30-25-1 in Bachey’s four seasons. Windsor’s final .833 win percentage for 2020 matched that of the 2003 squad that went 15-3-0 and lost to Northfield, 1-0, in the school’s only championship game appearance. … The Jacks graduate seven: McKeen, Page, Prior, Murphy, Emily Fielder, Kansas Marsh and Rachel Temple-McCabe.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.