West Canaan
The Mascoma seniors secured the first winning regular season of their high school careers by improving to 8-5-1 with two games remaining on their schedule.
Connor Morley, Alex Schwarz and Tucker Stenger are three of the eight outgoing players who were varsity members as freshmen. They can well remember the lean years.
“We’re just trying to take it game by game and get a win every time we step on the field,” Stenger said. “Because in my four years here, we’ve never made it to a playoff game. It feels good to be in the winning column.
“Overall it’s team chemistry,” the senior standout added in describing his team’s newfound winning ways — the Royals were 3-13 last season. “Guys have been playing year-round with each other for so long now and it’s finally showing.”
Stenger scored the game’s first goal with 20 minutes elapsed in the first half. A Royals set piece seemed to fall apart before the ball bounced back to Schwarz, the free kicker. Schwarz then fed a through ball to Stenger, who showed patience by staying on sides then pausing to fake out the Monadnock goalie.
Mascoma’s Killian Dowd made it 2-0 five minutes later by cleaning up a deflected save — off Stenger’s free kick — close to the net.
Stenger went on to assist a goal by Jacob Dow at the 34-minute mark before the visitors found the back of the net on a George Somerset penalty kick.
James Disbrow completed the Royals’ scoring with a header, assisted by Dartangnan Collins less than a minute before halftime.
The second half was a gridlock until Caleb Dow scored for Monadnock (5-8-1) on a pass from Somerset in the latter stages of the contest.
Second-year coach Ryan Limero put the milestone win in perspective.
“We have a lot of confidence right now,” he said. “The second half of the season, we’ve been playing pretty strong soccer. We’ve lost to some of the teams above us, but they were pretty competitive games. … We have that feeling that we can play with anybody.”
The Royals play at Franklin on Tuesday and Hillsboro-Deering on Friday. The outcome of those games will help determine where Mascoma’s postseason will kick off.
“We figure if we win out it gives us our best chance at a home playoff game, which is something that would be huge for the community,” Limero said. “Huge for the boys.”
Notes: Limero played four years of collegiate soccer at Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y. He was a senior captain and graduated in 2014. … The Huskies came quite close to scoring first on Friday, but their left-side corner kick was headed away by Mascoma’s Cameron Holmes. … The Royals outshot their guests, 26-9. … Mascoma goalkeeper Hunter Whyte recorded 11 saves. … Holmes, Stenger, Schwarz, Morley and Jacob Dow were joined by Micah McCullough, Evan Peck and Kyle Langlais in the pregame ceremony for seniors and their parents.