Avery Fitcher has played soccer almost her entire life, and she always looked forward to playing high school soccer. So it felt fitting that on her senior night, she scored all four goals for Concord on Thursday to lead the Tide (8-7-1) to a 4-2 win over Windham (3-13).
Fitcher scored her first goal just five minutes in; then after Windham scored two minutes later, she scored in the 11th minute. She completed the hat trick in the 47th minute and scored her fourth on a penalty kick in the 54th. Windham converted a penalty kick of its own halfway through the second half.
“It was honestly one of the most fun things,” Fitcher said, thinking back on how her high school soccer career transpired. “It’s so sad that this season is ending because it’s my favorite time of the year.”
Concord thoroughly dominated the second half, possessing the ball for a significant portion of the latter 40 minutes in Windham’s defensive end.
After back-to-back losses to Exeter and Merrimack in which Concord was outscored 7-2, the Tide have put together consecutive wins to close out their regular season.
“It was an up and down rollercoaster throughout the season,” head coach Andrew Mattarazzo said. “But you don’t want to peak at the beginning of the year, you don’t want to be at your best at the beginning of the year. Would I say we’re at our best? We’re close to it, and we’re getting there.”
Concord honored its 13 seniors before the game on the football field at Memorial Field with the lights beaming down on a chilly fall night. With about two minutes remaining in the game, Mattarazzo took several of his seniors out, and the moment seemed to set in for his players that the end of their high school soccer careers was near.
“I don’t think they understand how much they care about this program and this team and what they’ve done the past four years,” Mattarazzo said. “It’s good to have that emotion because it means you care, and it means you love the game and you want to do better. And I told them, we’re not done yet. We’re not done yet.”
Abby Dickson, one of the other 13 seniors, will continue her soccer career next year at Smith College. But on Thursday, she was more reflective on her four-year journey at Concord high.
“I’ve been a four-year varsity member. So much time spent here,” she said. “It’s crazy that it’s over.”
The regular season is over, but the playoffs await. Concord will find out its playoff seed after the rest of the schools in D-I finish their seasons on Friday.
And Dickson agrees with her head coach that the team is starting to peak at the right time.
“These last few games have been awesome,” she said. “We’ve really clicked, and we’ve found it.”