The Bishop Fenwick girls soccer team may have lost a host of seniors to graduation after last year, but the Crusaders will still be gunning for a Catholic Central League title once again when the season gets going next weekend.
“We’ve got a solid group returning with five seniors and a number of juniors, so we’ll see how things go,” said Fenwick coach Steve Flaherty. “It’s going to be an interesting year for us in a lot of ways.”
Fenwick went 12-6-2 last season, winning the Catholic Central League Large Division before unfortunately falling to Stoneham in the Division 3 North quarterfinal. After the season, the Crusaders lost Isabella Fabbo, Madison Csogi, Katelyn Clark, Lily Farrell, Eva Noci and Oceane Goriou to graduation.
“We had a solid season and obviously winning the league was a great accomplishment, but we just ended up running into a really good team in the tournament,” said Flaherty. “We lost a lot of experience from last year’s team after all those seniors left.”
But this year, a core group of talented returning players is poised to lead the way for Fenwick. With his quartet of captains in seniors Jenna Durkin, Elani Gikas and Mia Tsaparlis and junior Isabella DelVecchio, Flaherty is looking for leadership both on and off the field. Junior Ella Morgan and sophomore Ally Mitchell will also be looked at as potential key contributors this year.
“We’re certainly going to lean on our captains a lot for their leadership, because at this point all of them have been there before and they’ve all played big roles on the team,” said Flaherty. “As for our younger players like Ella and Ally, we’ll be looking for them to take a big step up as well since they’ve been playing for the past two years now.”
With the shortened preseason already half over, Flaherty and the Crusaders have had to make the most of their limited time on the field. They have already had a scrimmage against the Fenwick boys to get used to all of the new safety modifications this season, and Flaherty found the session incredibly helpful for him and his team.
“It was very helpful for all of us because it gave the girls and myself the chance to ask questions of the officials while the scrimmage was going on,” said Flaherty. “At this point, the rules are the rules and we all have to follow them. I think it’s going to be tough on the referees who have to make all of these calls, but it was definitely good to get out in a game-like situation and see how the new rules are being implemented.”
The Crusaders open up the season with a tough test, hosting defending Division 1 state champions Bishop Feehan next Saturday, Oct. 3 (4).
“It’s not going to be easy, but to be a good team you have to go out there and compete against the best,” said Flaherty. “I know some of the girls over there (at Bishop Feehan) and I know they have an incredibly strong program, but everyone is playing under new rules so there’s no telling what could happen. It’ll be a great test for us and I know the girls are looking forward to getting back out on the field in a real game.”
