Laconia, n.h.
The Lakers did what was expected of them Sunday afternoon in the D-IV state championship game against No. 6 Colebrook, scoring early and often to win their third state title in six years with a convincing 6-0 win. Sunapee finished its season with a 18-0-1 record, continuing a dynasty of athletic accomplishments that makes the Lakers the undisputed team to beat in D-IV.
But complacency wasn’t always easy to deal with, Clark said, and there were stretches when the Lakers needed a reminder of just how talented a group they were. In the end, Sunapee’s dominant core of seniors, who won the state title as freshmen before relinquishing the throne to Derryfield the last two seasons, gave the couple hundred in attendance one more reason to celebrate.
“Sometimes it got in our heads a little bit,” Clark said as the championship celebration continued around her at Jim Fitzgerald Field. “We have so much pressure on us. … Some people were even like, ‘We’re not even going to go to your semis game. We’ll see you at the championship.’ Like, all right. We have to get there first. You can’t expect us to win. We have to work for it.
“We’ve been wanting this one for a long time,” she added. “You could tell. We put our hearts out there. We wanted this one bad. We did it.”
Sunday’s game against the Mohawks, who defeated D-IV challenger No. 2 Newmarket, 2-1, in Thursday’s semifinals, was never close. Sunapee’s Mary Grzanna scored just 32 seconds into the game, finishing a far-post feed from Katie Frederick.
“Some tournaments we make tougher than others,” said Sunapee head coach Myles Cooney. “It was nice to get out in front. That’s the way you want it to go.
“That’s everybody’s goal, right? You want to get on top quickly,” Cooney added. “We wanted to put some pressure on them. We know some teams try to box us in; they play with a lot of guys in the back. If you score early, you can get them out of it early, then you can have more success. That first goal was huge for us.”
The Lakers spent most of the afternoon dissecting the Mohawks’ defense, taking advantage of turnovers and turning mistakes in the midfield into scoring chances. Sunapee got goals from five different scorers in the game, spreading the wealth around its deep offense. Clark was credited with two second-half goals.
“That’s been our way all year; we have nine kids maybe with five or more goals deep,” Cooney said. “There’s a lot of kids that score, a lot of kids that work hard. It was nice to see everybody play and play well today.”
Sunapee launched eight shots at Colebrook goalkeeper Brooke Lawson in the first half, the final one ending in the back of the net off of a give-and-go play with Sunapee’s Maddie Austin. The Lakers led 2-0 at halftime.
Maryann Cousens and Frederick both scored in the second half, the latter coming off a lobbing free kick from sweeper Faith Larpenter that Frederick, who also finished the game with two assists, redirected off the far post and in.
“This championship felt a lot better than basketball,” said Clark, who’s been part of two straight NHIAA D-IV girls basketball championship runs at Sunapee.. “We had a perfect season and all (in girls basketball), but this win just felt awesome. We have a lot of seniors. We’ve been together for a long time. We haven’t been able to get it the past few years. This year, we just kind of ended it. We’re seniors; we finished it. We’ll move on. But this was a great way to end it.”
Cooney and the Lakers have been part of championship runs before, and his group has almost never shown nerves in the spotlight. But this year’s team and its nine seniors, including dynamic scorers Frederick, Clark and Grzanna, defenders Larpenter, Jessica Parsons and Ziqian Hans and talented back-ups Lynnsey Trabka and Danielle Usko, were special in the two soccer championships they were able to bring home. In that sense, Cooney said, they will be hard to replace going forward.
Austin, Sunapee’s leading goal-scorer, could see a more highlighted role in next year’s offense as a senior. Starting goaltender Suzanne Rickard will also return, as will talented defenders Kalleigh Durkee and Kayleigh Bean. And though next year’s squad will have plenty of holes to fill, it’s hard to see Sunapee’s momentum slowing down.
“Everyone takes it one game at a time, right? That’s the whole thing that everybody hears, but it’s true the way you have to take it, especially in soccer,” Cooney said. “It’s a team game; you have to have 18 kids on the same page all the time. That’s a real task. Thinking about going 20-0-1 has never even hit my radar. Once we got into this tournament, we talked about re-investing in each other, re-investing what we wanted to do. Sure enough, it came true today.
“We have some nice youth coming up … We have the same summer program. Hopefully we’ll get the same results. I don’t want it to (end).”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.
Correction
The Sunapee High girls soccer team capped an 18-0-1 season with a 6-0 win over Colebrook in the NHIAA Division IV girls soccer championship match on Sunday in Laconia, N.H. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Sunapee’s final record.