Girls’ soccer team captures D2 south sectional title

The CHS girls' soccer team celebrates after winning the south sectional title. (Mike Barucci photo)

For the first time since 2003 and just the second time in program history, the Canton High girls’ soccer team has captured the Division 2 south championship — completing yet another chapter in its storybook season with a 3-0 win over Duxbury in Sunday’s sectional final at Taunton High School.

The win capped off a truly remarkable week of soccer for the third-seeded Bulldogs, who reeled off four consecutive shutouts in a seven-day span, including a 1-0 thriller over No. 2 Medfield, the defending state champions, in the sectional semis on Friday.

And it’s not over yet, as the Bulldogs earned the right to play for the ultimate prize — the Division 2 state championship — beginning with a semifinal game against north champion Newburyport last night in Lynn. (See next week’s Citizen for complete coverage.)

The winner of that game would then go on to face either central champion Auburn or west champion Belchertown in the upcoming state finals — a goal that seemed well within reach after last week’s dominant display.

“We’ve come a long way and were not intending to turn back now,” said head coach Paul Turner, whose team improved to 18-1-2 after Sunday’s convincing win over the eighth-seeded Dragons.

It was the same Duxbury squad that Canton had opened its season against back on September 7. But unlike in that game, when the Bulldogs fell behind 2-0 before coming back to win, they never trailed in the rematch, instead going up 1-0 early in the first half on a goal by junior striker Lauren Berman.

If anything, Turner said his players were a bit tentative in the early going, but they avoided mistakes and eventually found their rhythm, sparked by Brianna Duserick’s momentum-shifting goal at the start of the second half.

“That one really calmed our nerves,” said Turner, who lauded Duserick’s “beautiful finish” off a pass from Zarina Brune.

Turner said Duserick, who also assisted on Berman’s goal, saved one of her best performances for when it mattered most. He had similar words of praise for Berman, who was a factor all game despite enduring a “physical battering” from the Duxbury defenders. She, too, finished with an assist, sending a nice pass to senior Kayla Laughlin for the game’s third and final goal with two minutes remaining.

Laughlin, meanwhile, provided the highlight of the season just two days earlier when she knocked in the game-winning goal against Medfield, snapping a scoreless tie with only 90 seconds left in regulation.

It was a “breathtaking” goal, according to Turner, and it came against one of the state’s top goalkeepers and a team that had not lost in over a year.

It was also the team that had sent Canton packing last season, beating the Bulldogs 1-0 in the sectional quarterfinals en route to the Division 2 title.

Medfield was nearly as good this year; however, the Canton girls were “absolutely brilliant,” Turner said. They were relentless on offense and impenetrable on defense, and they kept battling even after losing both Meg Lennon and Vicki Tondre to injury. Turner credited several players with outstanding performances, including sophomore Kim McNally in the back and senior Kensey Waterman.

Earlier in the week, Canton breezed past No. 6 Scituate 6-0 in the quarterfinals, led by Berman and Duserick with two goals apiece.

Turner said there was a ten-minute stretch in the first half when Scituate had control of the game, but it didn’t last as the Bulldogs wrestled away the momentum, sparked by goalkeeper Kristin Burns, who made a handful of key saves to help preserve the shutout.

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