HARDWICK – After a dominant win last week over Blue Mountain for their fourth straight win, the Hazen Union girls soccer team gave a powerhouse Vergennes team all they could handle in suffering just their second loss of the season.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Senior Isabelle Gouin completed her latest hat-trick last Wednesday to power the Lady Cats to a 5-0 home win over Blue Mountain. Mya Lumsden fed Kennidee Gouin six minutes into the match for her first ever varsity goal to give the home team an early 1-0 lead. Isabelle Gouin gave a Hazen a three-goal cushion off a pair of feeds from Ella Renaud and Julia des Groseilliers before Renaud made it 4-0 heading into the break with a shot of her own from long range. Gouin ended the scoring on the day with the only goal of the second half and des Groseilliers finished the match with three assists. Kelsie Rivard and Renaud combined for 5 saves to secure the shutout. Ava Kingsbury made 12 stops for the Lady Bucks as they fell to 1-6.
“It was a complete and decisive win, but the Blue Mountain defense stayed tight and strong, keeping us to just one score in the second half. We continue to put team goals at the forefront as we get ready to face one of our toughest matchups of the season in Vergennes,” said head coach Megan Mercier.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Ava Francis scored a pair of second half goals to keep her Vergennes team perfect on the season as they escaped with a 2-1 home win over the Lady Cats on Saturday. Isabelle Gouin gave Hazen a 1-0 lead with five minutes left in the first half, hammering home a perfect through ball from Ella Luther. Francis found the equalizer twelve minutes into the second half for Vergennes, gathering a rebound off a direct kick. Francis scored the game-winner with just seven minutes left in regulation. Rivard made 7 stops in the loss for Hazen. Addie Smith turned away 3 shots for Vergennes, who improved to 5-0. Coming into this matchup, the Lady Commodores had outscored their first four opponents of the season 20-2. Gouin has now amassed 12 goals in Hazen’s first 6 matches after a junior campaign that saw her find the back of the net 20 times, earning her a Vermont All-State selection.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
“I feel like we dominated the first half and gave them their biggest challenge of the season. We went into the matchup against a talented team like that with some goals to a accomplish and we did that! I’m very happy with the effort from the whole team as we contend with nagging injuries heading into a very busy week,” said Mercier.
The Lady Cats traveled to Danville to face Caledonia United on Monday and return to Hudson Fields to make up a match with Missisquoi that was canceled on Homecoming Weekend. They welcome Richford to town on Friday before traveling to Northfield to face Paine Mountain next Tuesday.
