BRISTOL/WARREN — It's been an uneven first half of the 2024 season for the Mt. Hope High School girls' soccer club, which crossed the midpoint of the fall in recent days with a 4-5-0 overall record in the Division I ranks.

The Huskies results in their two games last week proved pretty much a microcosm of how their campaign has gone to date.

The locals offered up a solid outing in beating Smithfield 2-0 on the road on October 1, then couldn't muster up much in a 4-0 to a struggling Barrington squad at home on October 3. The rival Eagles improved to 3-4-3 at the time.

In the victory over the Sentinels, Mt. Hope briefly climbed back to .500 and ended a modesty two-game slide in the shutout.

Senior captain Lilliana Redman scored the first Mt. Hope goal off of Thea Jackson corner kick in the opening 40 minutes. Jackson later scored the second goal of the evening for the locals off a quality pass from Maddie Butterworth.

It was a momentous night in net for MHHS freshman keeper Moira Ware, who not only earned her first varsity start, but also collected the initial cleansheet of her career while making eight saves. Due to injury and a change in tactics,

Mt. Hope head coach Kerri Giarusso recently opted to move previous starting goalie Emily Moran into the field for defensive purposes.

Sophomore center back Elise Lanoie has likely been lost for the season with an injury. Moran entered the defensive backfield with junior Butterworth, senior Lola Silva, sophomores Emma Goglia and Thalia Adkins along with freshman Catherine Frawley.

In the midfield of Mt. Hope's 4-3-3 formation are three sophomores Kendra Ascoli, Aubrey Cummings and Mekayla Neves, the latter two being new to the location on the pitch. Cummings moves to the interior of the field while Neves moves to a new position back from forward where she plays on her club team.

Up front, All-Stater and junior Jackson is flanked by Redmond and sophomore Sara Nencka.

"I think we'll be fine, but I think we can play better," Giarusso said of her squad, which she observed has lacked a bit of cohesion to date. "There are moments when we play well and then there are moments when things don't look so good."

The Huskies entered the season with some reasonable expectations of being in the mix for the state title after they came within a game of winning the championship a year ago and returned most of their contributors. Mt. Hope went 7-5-4 during the 2023 regular season, beat South Kingstown and Chariho before falling to D-I champ Cumberland 3-1 in the final.

"We're always trying to keep a positive outlook, trying to get better as the season goes along," Giarusso added. "We just have to keep working hard, put the work in at practice and it will show on the field...If the girls work hard, play together, and give maximum effort, we will see much improvement on game days."