July 1, 2008
by Mike Zhe/
Chloe Schmitz (right) led Moses Brown to the title in Rhode Island Division 1. (photo: Chris Keith)
For years, it may have been the best rivalry that nobody outside of Rhode Island knew about.
On one side was Barrington, which didn’t lose often during a run of seven straight Division 1 titles. On the other was Moses Brown, a prep school that competed in the Southeast New England League but gave Barrington some stiff non-league battles over the years.
“We’d play them during the season, but the times we’d win we’d never get credit for it,” Moses Brown midfielder Chloe Schmitz said. “They’d win the title and we’d hear, ‘undefeated state champs,’ and we’d be like, ‘Hey!’ ”
This year, competing in Division 1 for the first time, the Quakers got a chance to have their say. Despite losing twice to Barrington by a single goal late in the regular season, they celebrated a championship after rebounding to beat the Eagles in the finals, 14-9.
Now, it’s a rivalry.
“Coming into the season, I know we had high hopes,” Moses Brown coach Jeanne Carhart said. “Then we lost our first game to North Kingstown by a goal. I think that really ignited the girls, showed them they could compete in the league.”
Behind players like the Union College-bound Schmitz, leading scorer Leah Saris (60 goals) and defender Zoe Katzen, the Quakers finished the regular season 10-3. The last two losses came in their last two games — both against Barrington, and both by a goal.
“We took a day off after the second one to kind of regroup,” Carhart said. “We knew we still had a little work to do, but we did have some confidence.”
After gaining a measure of revenge against North Kingstown in the semifinals, pinning the first loss of the season on the Skippers by a count of 12-9, the Quakers took aim at Barrington’s seven-year reign.
Behind Schmitz, who scored five goals and set up another on her way to earning game MVP honors, Moses Brown raced out to 8-4 and 12-5 leads and never saw its cushion fall below five after that.
Saris (three goals, two assists), Jess Rubine (three goals) and Lizi Jones (two goals) led the attack. Freshman goalie Caroline Burke made 10 saves.
“They showed a tremendous amount of growth,” Carhart said. “Our ability to spread the scoring out was probably one of our greatest strengths.”
Hilary Salander scored five times for Barrington, which for the first time in Division 1 history will not head into next season as the defending champion.
Salander and Schmitz, an all-state pick and honorable mention All-American last spring, have spent the last couple summers playing on the same Newport-based Metacomet select teams. They will head to Union together.
“She’s a great player,” Schmitz said. “I think we’re really similar in how we play. We’re quick and we have a lot of wind when we have the ball.”
It’s Moses Brown with the wind at its back now. Winning the SENE last spring was nice, but calling itself state champion is even better.
“It’s a great league,” Carhart said. “There’s a lot of parity. Any given night, anyone can beat anyone.”
“So satisfying,” Schmitz said. “Our team worked really hard all season. We lost to Barrington twice in the regular season so this was a nice way to end it.”
In Division 1-A, third-seeded Mt. Hope got five goals from game MVP Kayla Whiting and three from Ariel Teixeira and upset regular-season champion Cranston West, 11-7. It was the first state title for the Huskies, who trailed by one early in the second half but reeled off six straight goals.
? In Division 2, top-seeded Scituate won a title in its first year as a varsity program, beating second-seeded St. Mary Bay View in the final, 8-6.
Sophomore Katherine Corsi scored all four of her goals in the second half to pace the come-from-behind win.
For Winchester, the fifth time was a charm.
Denied in four previous trips to state championship games, the Sachems took the final step by beating Norwell, 9-8, in a heart-stopping Division 2 final.
Midfielder Meg Sullivan, who will play at Notre Dame, scored four times to pace the offense. Attack Courtney Tavener, middle Kyla Tucci and defender Chrissy Ockerbloom were the team’s other captains.
“As a whole, this team was very even across the board,” Winchester coach Suzanne Ontso said. “Obviously, Meg was a standout, but this team was pretty balanced. We aren’t that much different (from past teams), but the stars aligned.”
Goalie Chelsea Osborne made 13 saves, including a critical one on a late free position chance that kept the score 9-7. Norwell cut the margin to one with two minutes left but couldn’t pull even.
Sullivan parceled out some of the credit to the players in past years who’d been part of the near-misses.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “The girls on the team in past years deserve credit, too. They showed us what we needed to do to win and really put Winchester on the map.”
? Sophomore Kelly Rich scored six goals — including four straight in the first half as her team went up by seven — and Westwood claimed its first Division 1 championship since 2005 with a 10-7 win over Longmeadow.
Northwestern-bound midfielder Alex Frank and Dartmouth-bound middie Erin Massimi each finished with two goals and an assist. Westwood’s 13-11 win over Framingham in the semifinals ended the Flyers’ two-year reign as state champs.
The captains did what captains are supposed to do.
Maybe no team relied on its chosen senior and Division 1 college-bound leaders more than Souhegan, which put the final touches on an undefeated season by beating Londonderry, 15-7, in the Division 1 championship.
Tyler Petropulos (Harvard) finished the season with 60 goals and 135 points. JoJo Curro (New Hampshire) put up 79 goals, while Danielle Pelletier (Massachusetts) added 55. The fourth captain, Stephanie Norton, anchored the defense.
“These same athletes came up big all season long and the team kept getting better and better,” coach Maren Petropulos said.
In the final, Pelletier scored five times, Curro had four and Petropulos racked up three with six assists. The Sabers went 19-0, taking the final step that had eluded them a year ago when they fell in the championship game to Nashua South.
? In Division 2, third-seeded Hanover upset defending state champion Bow, 12-9. Josie Fisher’s four goals led the way for the Marauders, who got three apiece from Jennica Johansen and Bridgitte Black.
? In Division 3, Portsmouth made it two titles in a row, holding off upstart St. Thomas Aquinas, 13-11. Ali Marousek (four goals) and Callie Aspinwall (three goals) led the way for the Clippers, who have won 33 straight games and two titles since falling in overtime to Con-Val in the 2006 championship.
It wasn’t a fatal blow. Just one that got its attention.
Darien had been cruising through an undefeated season against in-state opponents until it ran into New Canaan in the semifinals of the Fairfield County tournament. The 15-14 loss ended the Blue Wave’s bid for a third straight county title, but it got them properly focused for the upcoming state tournament.
In the Division 1 final against Wilton, Courtney Bennett scored eight seconds into the game and the Wave never looked back, capping a 19-4 season with a 20-7 win and second consecutive state title.
“It was awesome,” coach Lisa Lindley told the Hartford Courant. “I didn’t expect to win by this margin. It certainly is nice.”
Caroline Spillane scored eight times for the Blue Wave, who won their four Division 1 tournament games by a combined score of 74-34.
? Danbury got to celebrate the first state title in program history when it upset second-seeded Suffield, 18-10, in Division 2. The fifth-seeded Hatters got six goals from Princess Livingston, five each from Katherine McKinley and Jillian Colley, and some top-notch defensive play from Hannah Kaplan.
A championship game loser last year, Middlebury Union took the field in this year’s Division 1 final intent on not having history repeat.
The third-seeded Tigers (15-4) scored the game’s first four goals and rolled to a 10-5 win over top-seeded Mt. Mansfield, securing the program’s eighth title in 11 years.
University of Vermont-bound goalie Laura Barber made 14 saves and was sharp throughout.
“She’s the best in the state this year and we knew that was going to be an issue,” Mount Mansfield coach Dan Linde told the Burlington Free Press.
Katie Ritter led Middlebury’s attack with three goals and Liz Kelley added two.
? There is a reason the season lasts two months, and Burr and Burton Academy is living proof. The Bulldogs won nine of their final 10 games, a statement that featured an exclamation point when they knocked off previously unbeaten Chelsea, 11-10, in the Division 2 final.
Kristen Palmer’s hat trick led the way offensively for the Bulldogs, who got the go-ahead goal from Emma Provenzano with six minutes left.
Brunswick capped off a perfect season and its first state championship, atoning for losses in the last two Class A title games with a 15-11 win over Kennebunk.
Leila Mills scored five goals, Cecilia Kjellman added four and the Dragons (15-0) pulled away after halftime.
“It was our time to shine,” Kjellman told the Portland Press-Herald. “We wanted it more than ever this year because we lost the last two years.”
Kjellman scored three straight goals after the Rams (11-4) cut the lead to 11-9. Stephanie Fisher made nine saves for Brunswick.
Kennebunk, which lost in the state final for the second straight year, received four goals apiece from Brooke Kravetz and Jameson Spang.
? In Class B, seven different players scored goals and Waynflete won its first title since 2005 with a 12-8 victory over North Yarmouth Academy. Mariah Monks led the way with three goals for the Flyers (14-1), while Morgan Woodhouse, Ashley Allen and Anna Libby added two. Courtney Dumont scored seven goals for NYA.
All across New England high school champions were crowned in 2010.
For the Boston Cannons, selecting Max Quinzani (Duxbury, Mass.) in the 2010 Major League Lacrosse draft was an easy decision.
Cannons defender Chris Passavia juggles his roles as a lacrosse player and lawyer.
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