Gaw among the best soccer players in Maine
By Matt Junker, Bangor Daily News Sports Editor
The player of the year awards have been handed out in Maine high school soccer, and several talented players from the Bangor area have taken home top honors in their class.
The Maine Soccer Coaches Association awarded its Player of the Year trophies for boys and girls Class A-D along with 8-person competition at its annual All-Star banquet over the weekend.
Among the honorees are Bangor senior attacking midfielder Clara Oldenburg, who helped lead the Rams to a second-straight girls Class A state title; senior Bergen Soderberg, who anchored the Orono Red Riots defense en route to a boys Class C North championship; Penobscot Valley senior Lila Cummings, whose Howlers from Howland won a third straight girls Class D state championship; and senior Mary Allen of Bangor Christian, whose goalscoring helped the Patriots win their first-ever state soccer championship in 8-person.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR — PCHS senior Brady Gaw has been named the boys 8-Person Player of the Year by the Maine Soccer Coaches Association.
Other player of the year honorees from the North region were Cayden Ala of the Class D boys state champion team from Fort Fairfield, and 8-person champion Brady Gaw of Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford.
Ala scored the game winner in Fort Fairfield’s Class D title victory, but emphasized it was a team effort that secured the championship for the Tigers in November. He and his team battled back from a heartbreaking loss in the state title game a year ago.
“This is all we’ve wanted,” Ala said after this year’s championship. “This is a dream come true for all of us.”
Bangor girls soccer coach Jay Kemble has called Oldenburg a “visual player” who sees the whole field and can both set up goals and score them. She set up the game winner by teammate Georgie Stephenson in this year’s Class A state final, which gave the Rams a 1-0 win and back-to-back championships.
In the Class D girls state title game, Cummings scored the first goal for Penobscot Valley and then assisted on the second.
“It starts with the community,” Cummings said in November. “They are always there for us, so we just want to give back to them and prove their support is worth it.”
The full list of player of the year winners is below:
Girls
Class A – Clara Oldenburg, Bangor High School
Class B – Noelle Mallory, Cape Elizabeth High School
Class C – Phoebe Bell, Maranacook High School
Class D – Lila Cummings, Penobscot Valley High School
8-Person – Mary Allen, Bangor Christian
Boys
Class A – Finn Coburn, Scarborough High School
Class B – Lucas Hayner, Yarmouth High School
Class C – Bergen Soderberg, Orono High School
Class D – Cayden Ala, Fort Fairfield High School
8-Person – Brady Gaw, Piscataquis Community High School