Mt. Hope mauls Pilgrim, finishes girls' soccer regular season with a flourish

Huskies hand Patriots a 5-0 setback after previously hammering Smithfield 9-0

By Mike Rego
Posted 10/24/24

WARWICK — The Mt. Hope High School girls' soccer club, after contending with a series of impactful injuries through the fall, will go into the upcoming Division I state championship playoffs …

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Mt. Hope mauls Pilgrim, finishes girls' soccer regular season with a flourish

Huskies hand Patriots a 5-0 setback after previously hammering Smithfield 9-0

Posted

WARWICK — The Mt. Hope High School girls' soccer club, after contending with a series of impactful injuries through the fall, will go into the upcoming Division I state championship playoffs feeling a bit better about themselves for sure following a pair of one-sided wins to close out the 2024 regular season.

The Huskies followed up their 9-0 thumping of Smithfield at home earlier in the week on Senior Night with a similar 5-0 thrashing of host Pilgrim to finish their slate Thursday afternoon, Oct. 24, in Warwick.

Star junior Thea Jackson scored four times for the locals, two in each half, as she upped her team-best goals total to 22. Senior Sage Delponte accounted for the other tally, her first-ever varsity goal. Emily Moran went the full 80 minutes in net for the Huskies, finishing with a handful of saves.

Mt. Hope improved to 7-9-0 for the season next awaited the formal release of the state tournament bracket. Pilgrim finished its fall with a 1-16-1 record.

"So we came into this game knowing we were the higher-ranked team. But we have problem. We usually play down to a team's level. So we knew that we had to come in and step it up," said Jackson.

Pilgrim notes

The Huskies were on the front foot from the opening kickoff and nine minutes into the contest they stepped into the lead as Jackson potted her first off an assist by Sarah Nencka.

Three minutes later Jackson and Mt. Hope were two goals ahead. Jackson took a clear from centerback Emma Goglia, just back into the lineup after missing most of the season due to injury, turned and ripped a shot from just outside the 18-yard box over the head of Pilgrim keeper Sloan Hogan.

The prettiest goal of the game was probably that off the foot of Delponte, who cutting towards the far post took a near-perfect pass cross from Lilliana Redman for the easy back-door tally to make it 3-0 Huskies in the 16th minute.

"It was thanks to Lily. It was a great pass," Delponte said of her maiden score. "It feels really great, especially being on this team. We all work really hard together. I was just at the right place, right time and Lily sent it through and it went in."

Mt. Hope had a very good chance to tack on yet another goal when Nencka was taken down with a late tackle inside the 18. The sophomore striker, however, didn't catch the ensuing penalty cleanly and Hogan was able to make the save diving to the keeper's right.

No matter, the Huskies literally spent nearly all of the opening 40 minutes in the Pilgrim end. And if not for a few Mt. Hope fouls, the Patriots would not have had any form of attack at all. The hosts did have three free kicks from distance before the intermission, two of which were off frame and the other was easily caught by Moran.

No significant action took place for the better part of the second half. Again, a few fouls by the Huskies gave Pilgrim some looks towards net, but again none were from reasonable scoring range and Moran made quick work of each.

Play picked up a bit late, leading to the two other Mt. Hope tallies. Redman, who scored four goals herself in the Huskies' thrashing of Smithfield the game prior, sent another sweet through-ball into the box where a diving Jackson beat substitute Pilgrim netminder Mikayla Stephenson for her hat-trick in the 73rd.

Nencka, seemingly snake-bit on the night after missing the earlier PK and cleanly hitting the post a few minutes before Jackson's third, was fouled once again in the box. This time, though, she was shaken up and left the pitch. Jackson calmly stepped in her stead to take the penalty, converting in the 78th minute for the fifth-and-last goal of the game.

"It was 3-0 for the majority of the game. We started strong, but then we kind of got comfortable. And then we weren't scoring again until the end of the second half. I'm glad we could pull it off. And our defense held up," Jackson added.

Smithfield notes

The locals throttled visiting Smithfield, 9-0, on Senior Night for the Huskies in a game played Tuesday, Oct. 22, on Deets Field just after the KMS girls' contest. Fittingly, Class of 2025 team member Redman potted four goals for Mt. Hope.

"I was having a really good night," Redman, who had scored just once previously, said of her four-goal output on Senior Night. "It meant a lot. I've really been trying every opportunity I've had this season to score and I finally got a couple in the net."

Jackson scored two goals and also assisted on three others. Goglia had a goal and an assist as did Ascoli. Nencka added the other tally while Abby Rodrigues also had a helper.

"We've been doing a lot better. I think we're going into playoffs with a positive attitude, just try to do our best and see what the outcome is," said Ascoli, the sophomore defender who held the backline steady while her classmate Goglia was out of the lineup.

Moran played the first 60 minutes of the contest and made three saves as she and freshman Moira Ware combined with the Mt. Hope defense to post the cleansheet.

Playoff notes

The wins lifted the Huskies into 10th place in D-I under the new Interscholastic League power rankings formula and sealed a spot into upcoming state playoffs. As of Thursday's results, 13 teams had earned enough points to qualify for the tournament, which is set to begin with preliminary round games between October 29-31 at sites of the higher-seeded sides.

If the number of teams holds at 13, the top three seeds — Cumberland, La Salle and North Kingstown — would receive byes into the quarterfinals. Seeds 4-8 would host seeds 13-9. Mt. Hope would travel to seventh-seeded East Greenwich if forms continues.

"Our season, probably our lowest point, we were missing like five starters, but now that we have Emma back, who's really a key for our defense, I think we're finally getting back to the way we're capable of playing," Jackson said. "We want to put all this behind us. We've ended our season pretty strong these past two games. And we just want to go into playoffs and play strong as well."

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