N. Smithfield girls earn final playoff slot

Facing a do-or-die situation, the North Smithfield girls middle school soccer team extended its season by at least one game by edging defending state champion Mount St. Charles Academy, 1-0, last week to slip past Mount in the standings and take the Northern Division's fourth and final playoff slot.

Veronica Hardy enjoyed her weekend after scoring the game's only goal on a penalty kick. With the win, North Smithfield improved to 6-4-2 for the season, good for a third place tie with Burrillville. Burrillville and NSMS split their two games during the season, but North Smithfield allowed fewer goals and scored more for the season, and could be awarded the division's third seed. A meeting was scheduled this week to determine playoff pairings.

"Our girls played an absolutely great game and we got that goal in the first half and then played outstanding defense," said NSMS coach Sarah Dupre. "We only have four eighth graders on this team and our seventh graders, like Melissa Juhr and Claudia Lamoureux, really stepped it up on defense."

The first time that the teams met, Mount came up with a late goal and the game ended in a tie.

North Smithfield also defeated North Cumberland Middle School, 2-0, and McCourt Middle School, 6-1 last week. Hardy popped in four goals, Michaela Brodeur and Gabrielle Fernandes added single scores. It was the first goal of the season for Fernandes.

Division champion Lincoln Middle School finished its season with a 10-1-1 record and will receive a top seed for the playoffs.

Lincoln cruised to victory on Monday against McCourt with a 5-0 shutout. Two days later Lincoln closed out the regular season at Diamond Hill with another 5-0 shutout against North Cumberland.

Coach John LaFleur said that his team was solid in both games and he was able to rest a lot of the starters to give the younger players a lion's share of the action. Nicole Mis and Trish Katz both found the goal a couple of times last week and sixth-grader Victoria Williams got her first goal of the season.

"It has been a special year for this team, but the first step to our goal is Thursday night when we open the post season," said the LMS coach. "The leadership of our older girls like Casie Beauchemin, Serena Balon and Lauren Hervieux has been instrumental to any success we have had to this point. In order to win the state title, seventh-grade standouts like Erin Gannon, Sydney Brigido, Liz Young, Faith Fernandez, Adriana Toro and Delaney Maxell must offer that same leadership."

Ponaganset at 7-3-2, took the division's second seed. In its final week, the Lady Chieftains topped Burrillville, 3-1, just got by North Cumberland, 1-0, and then tied Mount, 1-1.

Coach Sarah Busam's Gallagher Middle School team found itself in a must win situation last week and the team came through with a pair of huge wins, 3-1 over Deering and 2-1 over Davisville. The second win gave Gallagher third place in the Central Division.

"We went into the Deering game knowing that we had beaten them easily the first time around and I told our girls not to take anything for granted," said Busam. "They didn't and played hard to earn the win. We started off a little slow, but came on as the game went. By the end, we showed that we were getting ready for the showdown with Davisville."

GMS leading scorer Vickie Carter got her team on the board first against Deering and then Jenna St. Lawrence popped in her first goal of the season.

"We were all very excited for Jenna because she had come so very close on several shots this season, and finally got one to go in," said Busam.

Deering narrowed the lead to 2-1 on a direct kick score, but a Miranda Peloquin goal sealed the deal for GMS.

Once again Carter gave GMS the lead with an early score, assisted by Peloquin. Davisville tied the score and the back-and-forth game remained tied until there were only two minutes remaining when St. Lawrence took a pass from Carter and booted it home for the winning score.