Newport Nets 4 Goals in Senior Day Victory

By Chris Laclair
Eagle Times Sports Editor
NEWPOR, NH — The Tigers celebrated senior day with a double rainbow, a stunning gift from Mother Nature for three of their players final home game.

Tiger head coach Gary McCall was concerned before the game that the girls might discount Somersworth which they beat 7-1 at the beginning of the month.

But his team wasn’t overconfident and and came up with a convincing 4-1 victory in a game in which they were never behind.

Maykayla Cossingham made the first goal from 20 yards out. The ball sailed over the head of the outstretched Somersworth goalkeeper as it curled into the net. Her teammates rushed to celebrate, energizing the team that had come out flat for the first 12 minutes of play.

The game was nearly tied when Somersworth eighth grader Lucy Laratonda broke free for a one-on-one matchup against Tiger goalkeeper Skylar Nelson. She put everything she had into the shot, but the ball sailed left of the net.

Newport would come back down the field with a scoring opportunity of their own. Aubrey Curtis crossed a ball from the left side of the box to Abby Tenney, who was left unmarked, for an easy shot into the goal. She jumped up and down with joy as it was the first home goal of her career.

With only seconds remaining in the first half, Cossingham would send another long ball towards the net and the Somersworth goaltender couldn’t make a clean save setting up a rebound shot and goal from Cassie Sanborn for a 3-0 lead.

Newport celebrated its seniors at halftime with words from McCall about each girl, flowers, pictures with their families and hugs. Seniors Emmah O’Connor, Adrianna Coleman and Lauren Brewer took one last photo together before heading back to their bench to prepare for the second half.

Laratonda would get redemption as she carried the ball down the left side of the field past the Newport backs to take a perfect shot from 15 yards out over the head of Nelson. The goal would be a wakeup call for the Tigers to refocus.

As if written in a movie script, O’Connor would score her first varsity goal in her last home game as a Tiger to finish off the day’s scoring. She sent a shot from the left side on a tough angle to get past the goaltender. She was surrounded by teammates with lots of hugs.

“It was really exciting for me.” O’Connor said. “It was my first goal of my whole high school career, and I was just really happy.”

“This was a good game for us, especially the second half as they came out strong.” Somersworth’s Dave Swallow said. “We talked about adjustments at halftime to be more aggressive to the ball, to settle the ball more and just push forward to the net and I think we accomplished all of that.”

“I thought we played a solid game today, played a good 1st half and came out a little shaky in the second half which gave Somersworth some life.” McCall said. “They were able to take advantage and get one on the board, after that, we were able to settle down and finish out the game.”