SACO — Undefeated, unscored on (until last week, anyway), and on their own home turf.
You might say that top seed Scarborough will pose an enormous challenge to No. 2 Thornton Academy, when the teams meet tonight for the Western Maine Class A girls soccer regional championship (6 o’clock) at Kippy Mitchell Sports Complex.
Still, the past means nothing, according to Golden Trojans’ coach Chris Kohl.
All that matters is the here and now.
“It’s a new day,” said Kohl. “So we can’t worry about how many goals they’ve given up [just one all year], or the past, or how many goals they’ve scored. We’ve just got to worry about what’s going to happen in 80 minutes. We want to score more goals than them in that 80 minute span.”
That didn’t happen during the lone regular season meeting between the two, which the Red Storm took 1-0 at Paul Hill Stadium.
That was in the regular season finale.
Thornton rebounded with a pair of playoff wins, including Saturday’s 2-1 triumph over Greely.
It was perhaps a fitting way to end Thornton’s 30 year run of varsity sports on the grass at Hill Stadium, which will soon be fitted with field turf.
“We were 18-1 on that field, the last two years,” said Kohl. “We’ve had a great run there, but I’m going to like the turf, too.”
The Trojans (13-3) have shown themselves capable of playing a solid game from the first whistle to the last, and from the goal on out.
Senior Sydney Proctor has been a veritable workhorse in the Trojan net, having spun nine shutouts this year, adding to her school record of 23 whitewashes.
While Proctor buys the Thornton attack sufficient time with each save she makes, freshman striker Amanda Arnold cashes in most of the scoring chances.
Her nose for the net has resulted in 10 goals.
Kohl said that Arnold has shown marked improvement with each game.
“The second part of this season,” said Kohl, “she started relaxing a little bit more. She showed a little bit more composure, and that comes with just playing. There are no freshmen anymore.”
While teams make adjustments on the fly, Kohl said that there is no point in abandoning the attacking attitude that served them well all season long.
“If we decide to just sit back,” said Kohl, “and let them take it to us, it will be a quick game. We have to play with what got us here. When you get to this part of the season, you’re here for a reason.”
And a very good reason at that.
— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less