Sports Column

Pilgrim cements program legacy with state title

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/13/14

For four straight years, the Pilgrim girls’ soccer team watched another team celebrate a victory that could have been theirs.

The Pats watched in 2010, as they were upset as the No. 3 seed …

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Sports Column

Pilgrim cements program legacy with state title

Posted

For four straight years, the Pilgrim girls’ soccer team watched another team celebrate a victory that could have been theirs.

The Pats watched in 2010, as they were upset as the No. 3 seed in the Division II quarterfinals. The exact same thing happened in 2011, and the two years after that, though they reached the semifinals twice, they were upset both times as the No. 2 seed.

The players weren’t the same on all those teams, and the players from this year’s team weren’t even in high school during the first of the four straight upset losses.

But the bottom line didn’t seem to be about the continuity of the players from one year to the next. It was about the program, and how the program was so close to taking the next step – yet couldn’t get over the hump – that it was frustrating even watching from the outside.

During a four-year span, Pilgrim went 49-11-12, was never lower than a No. 2 seed and won only two playoff games and made no appearances in the championship game.

It was an era of prosperity that was doubling as an era of disappointment.

Kiss that reputation goodbye.

Now, with the cherry on top, it’s without question the greatest era in Pilgrim girls’ soccer history.

The Pats won the Division II state championship on Saturday in absolutely dominating fashion, out-playing top-seeded Coventry at every spot on the field en route to a 2-0 victory that felt more like 10-0.

Pilgrim won every loose ball, threatened relentlessly and never let the Oakers take a shot on goal from within the box in the second half. Any attempts Coventry did have were quickly turned aside by a suffocating defense and a typically stellar performance from junior goaltender Hannah Page.

This year’s Pats, simply put, weren’t going to be denied. Enough was enough.

“We put so much hard work and effort into this season,” senior Katelyn Vieira, the state’s leading scorer who was a terror up front all day for the Coventry defense, said after Saturday’s win. “We knew it was our season from the beginning. We sat down preseason, at captain’s practice and said, ‘Let’s set a goal for this season.’ Our goal wasn’t to win a state championship, our goal was to break the curse and get past semifinals.”

Vieira hesitated, and then continued.

“We went above and beyond that. We won the state championship.”

The title was the one thing missing in this resurgent era for Pilgrim, which went 4-8-4 in 2009 before finally finding its stride with an influx of talent in 2010.

Led by longtime head coach Mike Weber, the standard was set for three straight years that Pilgrim would be a contender.

I remember talking to Weber in 2011 about Vieira, and he told me that he’d never had a player like her.

The next year, in 2012, I remember him telling me that he was going to break one of his golden rules and start a freshman, Page, in goal, because she was too good to keep off the field.

Those two, along with a number of others, became part of the growing process that ultimately paid off against Coventry.

“We knew that we had to work hard,” Page said. “That was it. We said it from the beginning that this was our year. We were going to win Warwick Cup and then we were going all the way.”

Last year, Weber stepped away from the program and Tom Flanders, a graduate of Pilgrim in the late 1980’s took over after resigning from his post as the girls’ coach at Warwick Vets.

He inherited a core of solid players, but also a team that was raw, with more than 10 seniors having graduated the year before.

Still, in his first year, the Pats advanced to the semifinals, perhaps overachieving given their youth.

This year, there was no youth movement. Pilgrim was a veteran bunch, with a number of pure athletes who also stood out on the lacrosse fields in the spring. Confidence was abound, as the players radiating belief in themselves as a team more so than any Pilgrim squad I can remember. 

Flanders expected his team to be in contention again. But state champions?

“I really didn’t think it would happen this quickly,” Flanders said. “We graduated 11 or 12 seniors off that team, a very talented team, a team that went to the semifinals. To get 16 wins this year and win a championship, especially in this fashion, beating an undefeated team is absolutely incredible. I know that these kids are pumped.”

It was a total team effort. Portsmouth senior transfer Emma Manosh joined the fold, and gave the Pats a ball-moving forward who complemented Vieira. Junior Kendra Tantimonico began to flourish in the midfield, and the defense of Erin Plowman, Emily Fluette, Sophia DeLuca, Alexia Martins and Haley Buco developed into a strength.

Other players, like Hannah Johnson, Madison Almonte, Molly Lynch, Emily Heon and Emma Reilly came into their own, and Page provided her usual stabilizing presence in the back.

By the time this year’s playoffs rolled around, Pilgrim was playing better than anybody in the division, and it showed.

The Pats went 13-2-2 in the regular season, then rolled to three playoff wins by a combined score of 10-3.

There was no upset this time around, only a coronation of the new standard-bearer in the division.

“We needed to win,” Page said. “Nothing less than a championship.”

It was a special title for the program, for the players and for Flanders too. The longtime coach had never won a title, as his soccer teams never made it quite that far and his lacrosse teams have reached consecutive finals, only to come up just short each time.

In his 22-year coaching career, Saturday was the pinnacle.

“It feels incredible,” he said. “On a personal standpoint, this is a 22-year grind. I’ve been to the semis, quarters, and to actually get to this point with this club, the way they work day-in and day-out, they deserve this so much.”

Next season, Pilgrim will have to compete without the luxury of having Vieira up front. Almonte, Manosh, Reilly, Fluette and Buco will also be gone, ending their high school careers on top.

Pilgrim will regroup, but the girls that are left will no longer be tasked with trying to break through in the playoffs, or to overcome past disappointments.

No, next year’s team will be trying to maintain the team’s current status.

Champions. 

Kevin Pomeroy is the sports editor at the Warwick Beacon. He can be reached at 732-3100 and kevinp@rhodybeat.com.

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