SeDoMoCha MS girls win second straight Penquis League championship

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The SeDoMoCha Middle School Eagles and the Howland Cougars girls soccer teams faced off on Oct. 12 at the SeDoMoCha soccer field for the Penquis League Championship.

Contributed photo

    BEST IN THE LEAGUE — For the second consecutive season, the SeDoMoCha Middle School girls soccer team won the Penquis League championship. The Eagles won the title with a victory in penalty kicks on Oct. 12 vs. the Howland Cougars.

    The Eagles came into the game with an undefeated 9-0-2 record while the Cougars came in at 5-1-3. The Eagles and Cougars met twice during the regular season. The first meeting in Howland resulted in a 4-0 win for the Eagles and the second meeting of the season in Dover-Foxcroft was played to a 0-0 tie. The Eagles earned a spot in the championship by getting past a strong Greenville Lakers team with a 1-0 win earlier in the week. The Cougars got past a top-seeded Warsaw team from Pittsfield in an overtime win to earn a trip to the championship.
    Starting the game for the Eagles were Grace Francis, Jenna Clukey and Hannah Sprecher as forwards; Cheyanne Skomars, Olivia Wesley and Brigid Casey as midfielders; Chloe Waugh and Alexis London as fullbacks, Hayley Grant at the stopper position and Avery Nelson at sweeper. Tending goal for the Eagles was Kiara Prescott. Quickly into the game next were Jordan Thomas, Emelia Grant and Heather Burgess.
    The championship game scoreboard was all zeros until 15 minutes into the first half when the Cougars scored on a penalty kick. The teams played even for the rest of the half and the Cougars took a 1-0 lead into the second half.
    The Eagles came out in the second half fired up; and at the 8-minute mark,  Jenna Clukey connected with Grace Francis who had an open lane to the goal. Francis’ quick shot found the back of the net to even the score at 1-1.
    The Eagles and Cougars battled for the remainder of regulation time each holding the other scoreless. The stalemate between the two teams moved into two 5-minute overtime periods with each team again holding the other scoreless.
    The tie breaker came with penalty kicks as each team sent five players to the line. Clukey scored the first penalty kick goal for Sedomocha, then Judy King for the Cougars. Hannah Sprecher scored next for SeDo, with Kortney Mckechnie answering for the Cougars.
    With the penalty kicks tied at two goals each, Eagles goalkeeper Kiara Prescott went to the line for SeDoMoCha’s final kick of the round. Prescott torpedoed a shot into the back of the net to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead with only one Howland shooter remaining.
    The last Howland player stepped up to the line with Prescott back tending the goal for what ended up being the final play of the SeDo. season. Prescott knocked down the Howland shot on goal and it was game over. Prescott’s final play gave the Eagles their second championship win in as many years. The Eagles finished the season undefeated at 9-0 and 2 and defended their 2012 championship season.
    The lady Eagles have been on an impressive run with a perfect 2012 season at 10 wins no losses and an undefeated 2013 season with a record of 9 wins 0 losses and two ties.  The last loss for the Eagles dates back to October of 2011 in the semi-final round of the playoffs vs. Howland as they came up short in a penalty kick tiebreaker.
    Head coach Chris Wesley said that the team worked hard from the first day of practice to the last game and really came up big, especially on defense giving up only four goals the entire season. He said that the success of the Eagles this year was a true team effort. Assistant coach Jack Clukey said that the team gained a lot of confidence as the season went on and they were able to stay with some very good teams in the post season and come away with a couple of wins in two very close games. He said that the girls really stepped up and played as a team.