AUBURN — Emily Poulin knew she had a tough assignment Saturday.
The senior St. Dom’s defender had the job of marking up Monmouth scorer Kylie Kemp.
It was a daunting task but one the Poulin took in stride. After all, she’s drawn similar assignments, and she knew she had help.
“We worked as a team, and we won as a team,” said Poulin.
The Saints got a goal from sophomore Kirsten Conner and an outstanding defensive effort from Poulin and her teammates in a 1-0 Western C semifinal win. The Mustangs only managed a handful of shots against the tenacious play of the Saints.
“For the past couple games, I’ve been man-marking,” said Poulin. “We’ve really been practicing shielding the ball and playing our possession game. Our defense did a really good job communicating today. This game was all about possession.”
Connor scored late in the first half, and that was all the Saints needed to advance to another Western C championship game. St. Dom’s is scheduled to host Waynflete in Wednesday’s regional final at 3:30 p.m. The Saints beat the Flyers in overtime last year.
“It’s an amazing feeling, but I know I and other people on the team won’t be satisfield until we go all the way,” said Poulin, who was on the squad that lost in overtime in the state final last fall.
The Saints (14-1-1) did a nice job controlling much of the game. Monmouth would attempt to transition only to have the Saints break up the play and move in the other direction. Poulin did a great job shadowing Kemp. If she got the ball, Poulin was right on her and other defenders were there for support.
“With 25 goals, she’s their go-to player,” said St. Dom’s coach Kathy Little. “Between the stopper and outside back, they communicated the entire game and that’s what we’ve been talking about.”
The Saints came out strong and outshot the Mustangs 12-1 in the first half. Marley Byrne, Conner, Faith Grady and Emma Byrne all had scoring chances in the first half. Mustang goalie Adrianna Gonzalez played well in net with 14 saves, including a diving stop off an Emma Byrne header late in the first half.
“It’s a matter of putting one in the net,” said Little, whose team lost to Monmouth 1-0 in the regular season. “They kept us off the board the last time, and we outshot them last time. We worked on shooting the last couple days. It was bound to come.”
Kayla McLellan chased after the ball on the left side and forced a turnover. Conner got possession of the loose ball and saw the opportunity with 2:41 left in the half.
“I knew it was on my left foot,” said the sophomore midfielder. “So I was like ‘I have to shoot this,’ and I did. It curled right over the goalie. I thought she was going to get it, but she didn’t.”
The Mustangs tried to mount a comeback in the second half. Monmouth (13-3) got a couple of shots from Kemp. Saints goalie Kelly Pomerleau stopped one bid and another went wide. Monmouth had a pair of free kicks that gave them prime opportunities. With 25:38, the Mustangs seemed unsure of what to do with the opportunity and Kemp’s kick went nowhere near the net. After a rush by Kemp and Madison Bumann created another dead ball chance, Kemp put it low through a crowd but Pomerleau made the stop with 16 minutes left.
“We practice plays all the time, and we still have a hard time,” said Monmouth coach Gary Trafton.
Monmouth continued to press late, but the Saints did a fine job keeping possession and enabling the Mustangs from creating any offensive threat. The Saints finished the game outshooting Monmouth 22-4.
“The girls played hard, and they didn’t give up,” said Trafton. “Win or lose, it was a team effort. We have four seniors that certainly didn’t want it to end, but maybe we’ll come back a little hungrier next year.”
kmills@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
