WATERVILLE — A Winslow girls soccer team that is expected to contend for Class B North honors this season is off to a fast start.
Saturday morning the Black Raiders scored three goals in the second half to put away rival Waterville 4-0. Winslow (3-0-0) has yet to be scored upon while Waterville fell to 2-2-0.
A year ago, Waterville eliminated Winslow from the postseason in the quarterfinal round. However, the Purple Panthers graduated the heart of that team, while the Raiders returned a strong group.
“We knew coming in that Waterville wasn’t the same team as last year,” said Winslow forward Sara Doughty, who finished with two goals and an assist. “But we knew we had to come and work. We have seven seniors but only five are actually playing. We think we can surprise a lot of teams. I think it’s pretty much anyone’s game in Northern B.”
Doughty scored the lone goal of the first half with 13:26 left to play. To that point, Waterville had held its own, but that changed over the final 40 minutes.
“We got caught up kicking the ball a little too much in the first half, but we survived,” Winslow coach Steve Bodge said. “I think our stamina pretty much showed in the second half. We kind of ran away from them a little bit.”
The Black Raiders’ depth played a factor in the outcome. Bodge substituted four or five players at a time every seven or eight minutes while maintaining a core group on defense.
“He always subs a lot, which at times is stressful,” Doughty said. “Sometimes you look on the field and you’re kind of like ‘whoa’ but after a while you’ve just got to trust it and hope in the second half it goes well.”
It did go well in the second half.
Doughty made it 2-0 with a run down the right side triggered by a pass from Maeghan Bernard. She turned the corner and beat Waterville keeper Jaycie Richard (16 saves) with a shot to the left corner of the goal. Sophomore Carly Warn scored on a similar shot 10 minutes later to make it 3-0.
The Raiders kept the ball in the Panthers end of the field for most of the second half. Senior backs Paige Trask and Bernard. a two-time all-conference player, were able to form the last wall of defense near midfield and limit Waterville’s scoring chances to three routine shots on goal in the second half.
“I think we are making progress but they definitely played better than us today,” Waterville coach Mark Serdjenian said. “The second half we lost our focus a little bit for whatever reason.”
Winslow’s Grace Smith made it 4-0 with three minutes left to play when she took a pass from Doughty and chipped it over Richard’s head. The Black Raiders finished with a 21-5 advantage in shots on goal with its goalie, sophomore Jennifer Ferry, finishing with five saves for her third straight shutout.
Of the team’s expectations, Bodge said, “They’re probably the highest we’ve had in a long time. We’ve got a ton of older kids who have played a lot of soccer, ton of younger kids who have played a lot of soccer. We want to compete in every game.”
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