WLC girls soccer begins a season of rebuilding

The Wilton-Lyndeborough girls’ soccer team is building itself back up after a couple of down years and hopes to once again be competitive at the NHIAA varsity level this fall. 

“I came into this team knowing that they hadn’t had much success in the past and that they’d been pretty non-existent in the past few years,” said first-year head coach Kierra Burton. “My goal for this team is: obviously, it’s unrealistic to say, ‘yes, we’re going to go win state now’ – that’s pretty unrealistic. But my goal for this team is to make them better as players, because even if they can just get a little bit better at the end of the day, that’ll make me happy.”

WLC won just one game last year, spent time at the sub-varsity level before that and has not had a winning season since 2020, but Burton, a four-year varsity player at Franciscan University of Steubenville, has the experience, know-how and love of the game to steer them in the right direction. Friday’s opener against Lisbon wasn’t the most promising start, however, as the visiting Panthers shut out the Warriors 7-0 on the sunny, 80-plus degree afternoon.

“Going into the game, we knew that it was going to be a tough game, not only because of the opponent, but because it was hot,” Burton said. “That was going to play a significant factor.” The game was played in four quarters, rather than two halves, to allow for water breaks, and by the end of two periods, Lisbon was up 5-0. 

“In the beginning what happened was they scored first,” Burton said, “and so we let that get in our heads and we put our heads down, and we just continued to let them score.”

After a halftime heart-to-heart, the Warriors came out strong, holding Lisbon scoreless until midway through the fourth period. 

“We just had a talk as a team and decided that just because we were losing doesn’t mean that we got to sacrifice our quality or sacrifice how we were playing,” Burton said. “If the game was lost, we could still play good soccer. So we talked about that at halftime and then they went out. And really I think that’s made a difference in the third quarter was the quality of our play and how much we seemed to care about the game.”

When it comes to caring about the game, look no further than WLC’s captains and keeper. McKenna Crouse is a powerful midfielder and strong anywhere on the field; after a couple early Libson goals, Burton slid Crouse to center back to anchor the defense, and that athleticism and versatility are key to her game. Forward Victoria LeMoyne didn’t get much of a chance to flash her skills as the Warrior offense was stagnant at best, but she’s probably their strongest offensive weapon.

“My captains, they were chosen because their teammates thought that they showed up every single day,” Burton said. “And then I had noticed as a coach they showed up every single day. But they not only showed up, they tried and they really put in the effort, and they made efforts to communicate to their team things that they were doing wrong, and not in a derogatory way, but in a ‘let’s get better, we can continue to do this’ type of way. And then they showed that on the field.”

Izzy Swett, the Warrior keeper, was under a lot of pressure all game long, as Lisbon took advantage of every turnover or lost 50/50 ball to attack, but despite the lopsided score, she put forth a valiant effort and even saved a second-half penalty kick. 

“Something that we worked through with her is to not get in your head,” Burton said, “because it can be easy as a keeper to get in your head, because while the goal might not be your fault, ultimately the ball has to get through you to get into the goal. So we worked with her a lot on keeping her head up. As a whole, I feel like she kept her cool pretty well and didn’t seem to be freaking out too much regardless of the score.”

Burton also pointed out Vanessa LeMoyne and Lydia O’Connor as two players who responded well and stepped up after the team’s first-half struggles. 

WLC (0-1) is off until Friday, when they travel to Gorham.