BOW – “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season,” goes the old coach’s cliche. And for Bow girls’ soccer, the Falcons’ (15-2-0) third matchup with No. 8 John Stark (9-8-1) this season was definitely the most intense game of the three, yet the No. 1 team in D-II came away with a 4-2 win in the quarterfinal matchup on Friday afternoon.
The first half played out similarly to the previous two meetings, with Bow controlling most of the offensive possession and the Generals just trying to capitalize on the few opportunities they had. Even more so on Friday than in the earlier matchups, John Stark had its goalie, sophomore Lexi Boudreau, to thank for keeping the team in the game.
About 13 minutes into the action, Bow’s Lyndsey LaPerle fired a shot on goal that Boudreau dove to keep out of the net. Then in the 31st minute, she threw her hands up at the last moment to again preserve the scoreless tie.
“With Bow and with the amount of shots that they can send up – and they’re all on frame – she just keeps us in the game and allows us just to keep on trying to play our own game, so it gives us that opportunity,” Generals’ head coach Chris Pike said of his goalie.
But John Stark’s luck ran out in the 37th minute when Sidney Roberge found the back of the net off of a net-mouth scramble resulting from a corner.
Into the second half, John Stark hung around but just couldn’t quite get over the hump. A goal from Bow’s Bella LaPerle in the 65th minute on a penalty kick extended the Falcons’ lead. John Stark finally broke through a few minutes later on a goal from Madison Porth, the Generals’ first goal against Bow in the three games this season. But the Falcons responded almost immediately. Lyndsey LaPerle extended the lead to 3-1 with eight minutes to play.
The Generals kept fighting, however. Melody Couturier threw a seemingly innocent shot at Bow goalie Bridget Hilton, but she misplayed the ball, and for the second time in under 10 minutes, the Generals were back within a goal. And then for the second time in under 10 minutes, Lyndsey LaPerle scored to reestablish the two goal lead for Bow.
When these two teams first matched up at the end of September, a 2-0 win for Bow, Falcons’ head coach Jay Vogt said he thought his team still didn’t play a complete 80 minutes. On Friday, he felt a little differently.
“If we can play like we did today for 80 minutes, then I think we’ve got a good shot,” Vogt said regarding how this performance made him feel about his team’s championship prospects.
That focus from the opening kick until the final whistle was also key, Vogt said, because they knew the Generals were going to fight until the game was over.
“It was a great game, and a great game by Stark,” he said. “They kept battling. They never give up, and we knew that. We talked about that before the game that they’re gonna keep going, they’re gonna keep going, so we had to be strong.”
One of the strengths for the Falcons was undoubtedly their defense. Though Bow allowed at least two goals in a game for just the third time this season, Vogt was pleased with the performance.
“We talked about keeping our shape,” he said. “We knew that they had some good boots out of the back, that they could drive the ball. Their keeper had a long punt, so we worked on our shape, and making sure we had cover and balance so that when that ball came out that we were covering, and I thought the girls did a great job.”
For the Generals, the 2022 season comes to an end. It was an up and down year for Pike’s team that started 3-0 but hovered around .500 for most of the rest of the year. Even still, he’s excited about what the future holds for John Stark soccer. After a few years with less interest in the sport, Pike estimated next year’s program could be almost double the size of this year’s group. But before he looked ahead to next season, he expressed gratitude for everything this year’s team did in setting the program up for more success down the road.
“These students, these young adults, they’re excellent players, they’re excellent role models for the school, for younger players,” he said. “I just want everybody to know how much I think of them and to show the community what kind of people they are.”
He also expressed great pride in his team’s performance against one of the perennial greats in D-II girls’ soccer.
“You can’t ask anything more of them,” he said. “I think we actually challenged them. Hopefully the girls feel as though they played really well because I’m really proud of them.
Meanwhile, Bow’s season will continue into the semifinals where it’ll face No. 4 Pembroke at Stellos Stadium on Tuesday in a rematch of last season’s D-II championship game. One of the Falcons two losses this season came against the Spartans – a 3-2 defeat on Sept. 20.
Six weeks later, Bow will get its shot at revenge.