ABINGTON – Late last Friday night, instead of heading home after breaking her team’s huddle, coach Kate Casey eagerly went back to her desk to look in the archives.
Her research confirmed it: the Abington High girls soccer team hadn’t beaten Rockland in over a decade. Friday’s 6-0 finish granted the Green Wave its first victory in the crosstown rivalry since 2012.
That’s the moment Casey knew this season was different.
Less than one month into the campaign, Abington (6-1), now winners of six straight, has already doubled last year’s win total (3-13-2). The Green Wave checked in the latest release of the state tournament power rankings as the No. 8 team in Division 4. The team, 7-26-2 over the past two seasons, hasn’t had a winning season since 2015.
“It’s been unbelievable,” said Casey, a 2002 Abington High grad and the school’s assistant principal who has coached the team for 18 years, the last 14 as varsity head coach. “It brings back memories of teams that made playoff runs in the past. It’s more the excitement that the kids bring every day that I’m like, ‘This is awesome.’ Seeing them in their jerseys at school, it’s awesome. It’s a cool feeling.”
Last year, Abington scored 21 goals all season. This year, the team has scored 30 through the first seven games.
“I was not aware of that,” senior defender Hope Montgomery said with a smile. “That’s awesome.”
More: Grading Jermaine Wiggins’ first month as coach of Brockton High football
“I think we’re doing a good job in getting them to look to shoot. That was always something – they wanted to give that one-more pass off because they love their teammates,” Casey said. “But, they’re looking to shoot, which is fun. It’s bringing more excitement.”
Abington has scored fewer than three goals just once so far, having notched wins over Mashpee (4-0 win), Holbrook (twice: 4-0, 6-2 wins), Hull (3-2 win), Carver (5-0) and Rockland (6-0). It lost 6-2 to Cohasset in the season-opener.
Avery McCann, one of the team’s 10 seniors, has scored in each of the team’s seven games, and she added two goals in Monday’s 6-2 win over Holbrook to bolster her numbers to 9 goals and 3 assists so far. Sophomore Ava Williamson, freshman Zoie Maslanka, freshman Rylee Nowlan, senior Jillian Groom and freshman Laney Bergman have also been in the scoring mix.
“That’s something that’s fun with the coaching staff,” Casey said of integrating the five productive freshmen. “Not that I ever want to look past a season or a game, but thinking to, ‘If we’re down in a game, what do we look like with that lineup? What do we look like next year? Who’s where?’ It’s been fun with the five freshmen and the three non-senior, non-freshmen and getting them to all incorporate together.”
More: Strength in numbers: 12 senior captains anchor undefeated Cardinal Spellman girls soccer
Results have come back positive so far.
“The morale is crazy high,” senior defender Natalie Van Luling said.
Junior keeper Molly Joyce has sealed four shutouts this season with help from Van Luling, Montgomery, seniors Ashlin Gardner and Brielle DeJesus, and freshmen Elise Libby and Carly Agnew in the back line of defense. A few of the midfielders also shift back to pitch in on that end.
“What I think we’ve done well as a coaching staff is, being able to move kids around and change formations,” Casey said. “From a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 to a 4-3-2-1, there are different scenarios we put ourselves in. We’ll have a couple of gameplans up our pocket that we can easily try to execute, hopefully well.”
The competition won’t relent going forward, as East Bridgewater, Norwell, Sandwich and West Bridgewater – plus rematches with Cohasset and Rockland – still loom on the schedule.
Regardless of the results in those games, the early success of 2023 was well worth the wait.
“We’ve been through it all together,” Van Luling said. “I love this team. I love the girls. When I look back at high school soccer, I’ll think of this year.”
