Girls Soccer team has lots to be happy about

Danielle O’Brien, Veritas Staff

October 2, 2017

As the weather begins to get colder and as the leaves begin to fall, the Lady Dogs find themselves in a great position. The girls soccer team’s record after its first ten games is 8-2, including one huge victory over rival East Bridgewater. Despite losing some players from last year’s South Sectional runner-up team, the Dogs are rolling over their opponents.

The girls have  high expectations  with league championship aspirations and hopes for a long tournament run. Junior captain Meghan Dion holds the team to high standards and shares her optimistic views for the season.

Dion says, “This season I look forward to us making it further than last year. We have so much potential to do so and it is so exciting to see that so early in the season. I think this is our best team yet!”

As the season started off the girls eased into filling the roles of two key defenders in last year’s line up, Emily Beatrice and Bridget Reardon. As a result the girls pulled together as a team especially with the incoming freshmen rising to the occasion.

Captain Grace Oliver says, “At first we didn’t know what to expect from the freshmen coming up, but they didn’t have a tough time filling the shoes of the people who left.”

Another set of shoes that had to be filled was the goalkeeping position. This year’s senior captain Jaymie Atkins switched her position from goal to help the team. Freshmen Mackenzie Tsiantoulas has filled the position, doing a phenomenal job.

Dion has high praise for the freshman phenom. “As a first year high school goalie Mackenzie always pushes herself to do better and to be confident in net. She is a huge part of our team and without her in net, we would be a different team,” says Dion.

So far, one of the highlights of the season is the Lady Dogs’ win over East Bridgewater. EB has been a dominant rival, but Rockland finally switched roles with them, defeating them  3-0.

It was a proud moment for Rockland. “Everyone wanted to win so bad and we all worked so hard. We had possession and definitely dominated the whole game. It was one of the best feelings finally beating them after four years,” says Oliver.

Dion added, “EB has beat us for years and years and finally beating them just felt so awesome. It gave me chills when we kept scoring. Playing your rival team is always intense and exciting.”

The victory was palpable to everyone who saw the girls’ smiles and cheers  as the ref blew his whistle.

Despite the fact that they lost to EB the second time around, the team will look forward to another chance to face them in the  postseason.