Girls soccer team ready to score goals

Experienced Rams team hopes to compete in the league, postseason.

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Staff photo

The girls soccer team practices Sept. 23.

Connor Lynch, Sports Editor

After a solid season last year, the Spring-Ford Girls’ soccer team has even higher ambitions this fall — to put it mildly. 

Senior Molly Thomas said the goals for the season are simply, “winning the PAC, winning districts, and winning states.” 

Thomas, alongside fellow senior Hope Flanegin, looks to lead the Rams this year in a quest to become part of Spring-Ford history. Both Thomas and Flanegin have announced their commitment to play Division I soccer (Thomas at Eastern Carolina University and Flanegin at Lehigh University), but they desperately want to achieve something special before moving on to college.

“I would really like to win a league title before going onto college,” Thomas said.

Thomas and the entire team’s drive for a PAC Championship arises from a desire to reverse previous Spring-Ford girls soccer teams’ inability to secure this accomplishment.

Last season the girls finished with an impressive 16-6 overall record and even more respectable 13-2 league record. The girls displayed their dominance countless times last season, such as the 7-0 victory over West Chester East and the 6-1 thrashing against Methacton.

During the regular season, the team only dropped two games in the PAC against Boyertown and Owen J. Roberts. 

Despite their prolific league campaign, the Rams were on the wrong end of the scoreboard in the PAC final against Boyertown last season. This defeat is a point of emphasis and motivation for this season.

“We have made it to the finals in both my sophomore and junior seasons, but we lost both of those games,” Thomas said. “It’ll be different this year” 

The high hopes for the team appear to be reasonable to say the least.

Collectively, the team is arguably one of the best classes in the program history. Alongside All-Area prospects Flanagin and Thomas, the team also includes Carnegie Mellon commit Riley Wallace in net. The talented roster also includes all-area seniors Caitlin Norwood and Emily Higgins. Junior midfielder Liv Curry, a Wisconsin commit, is also predicted to have a monumental impact this season, as well as other promising players such as juniors Alley McVey and Reese Kershner and sophomore Mo O’Donnell.

Another addition to the team is head coach Tim Raub. It is undebatable that the former Phoenixville coach has inherited one of the most talented squads around. However, turning that talent into success is not easy. 

Raub’s arrival has brought an always competitive atmosphere during practices that appears to have galvanized the group of girls.

“The new coaching staff has created a different environment” Thomas said. “I think this is a positive change because it helps everyone stay focused on our ultimate goal of winning.”