LEOMINSTER ‐ With the scoreboard still in a scoreless deadlock between No. 1 Sutton girls soccer and No. 6 Littleton, the Division IV state championship game looked to be headed for overtime.
A physical defensive battle had kept both sides from finding the back of the net as the final minute approached. Then, with little to no time remaining, the Suzies geared up for one final push before the whistle.
Pressure came from multiple angles around the Tigers’ goal, as many Sutton players worked the ball around Littleton defenders to try to create some shot opportunities.
As a Suzies player sent the ball towards the Tigers’ net, goalkeeper Vivian Lee batted it away for the save. However, Ava Magnuson was set up right in front of the goal to tap the ball into the back of the net for the game-winning score with under one minute left in regulation.
Magnuson dropped to her knees while her teammates rushed to her, as the senior’s 42nd goal of the season had clinched Sutton’s fifth consecutive MIAA state title.
“It was insanely relieving,” Magnuson said. “The entire time, I was just thinking, ‘We need to put the ball in the back of the net.’ And when I saw it in the last minute of the game, I just dropped to my knees… and it was just the best feeling.”
With the 1-0 victory, this marked the Suzies’ 13th state championship, the most of any girls’ soccer program in Massachusetts. Sutton also holds the most state final appearances among high school girls’ soccer teams in the state, with this game marking their 17th time playing for the trophy.
“Sutton really is a soccer town, and it’s so incredible from our youth programs going up,” Suzies captain Aby Jankins said. “We got to grow up together, and now we’re at our last game together, and it’s so amazing to play with them, to watch (Magnuson) score the game-winning goal. It really is the best feeling in the entire world.”
Following all the sustained success Sutton has accomplished in the past five years, this was Suzies head coach Alex Ferguson’s first year taking over the program, as he helped lead Sutton to a 19-4 season and continue their historic run.
“It was awesome, they just persisted the whole season… they did this with 15 girls, which is pretty amazing,” Ferguson said. “These seniors are going through five years with five championships, it’s just a crazy stat, I don’t think it’ll ever happen again.”
But for the Suzies to reach the trophy ceremony, it did not come easily.
Both Sutton and Littleton left it all on the field as they battled through the 0-0 stalemate.
Each team’s defensive lines held strong and played physical, tracking down the opposing team’s players with the ball and easily overtaking control to kick it away.
While the first half was scoreless, the Suzies kept pressure on the Tigers, sending four shots towards their goalie, in comparison to Littleton’s two shots on goal.
The Suzies utilized strong ball movement and smooth passes to drive ahead. But the Tigers’ defense read Sutton’s flow on offense well enough to disrupt the connection between players before they got close to the net.
As Littleton kept the Suzies’ offense under control, in the second half, Sutton ramped up its attack.
The Suzies fired seven shots at Lee in net, and kept a lot of pressure on Littleton’s back field.
However, Lee stood her ground for the Tigers, amounting to six saves in the second half as she dove and batted the ball away to keep her net clean.
While Sutton’s offense kept pushing upfield, its defense stopped numerous breakaway chances by Littleton.
Jankins and fellow captain Sarah Mendoza were quick to chase down and challenge the Tigers’ offense as they tried to even out the scoring opportunities and break the scoring drought that both teams seemed to be stuck in.
“We go into every game expecting it to be a very close, hard game,” Jankins said. “…We kept pushing each other the entire game. We didn’t let anyone let off the gas until that final whistle.”
“It was also very key that we were all staying composed,” Mendoza added. “Trying to keep the pressure off one another and really work together as a team and rally around each other to do it.”
The closet Littleton came to scoring was early in the second half, as the Suzies’ goalkeeper, Maddy Nunnemacher, charged out for the save after the Tigers took the shot.
But Nunnemacher failed to grab possession of the ball as it ricocheted back into play, where Littleton’s Annabelle Caouette was lined up with an empty net before her.
As Caouette took her shot, Jankins and Mendoza put their bodies in between the ball and the goal and deflected the shot away. This allowed time for Nunnemacher to retreat into her goal. And as Audrey Doyle sent one more shot off for the Tigers in that play, it went high and over the net.
The quick thinking by Sutton’s defense helped secure a clean sheet against Littleton and boost them to the one-goal victory in the end. In fact, the Suzies did not allow one single goal by opponents during their 5-0 run in the tournament, totaling 14 shutouts on the year.
Sutton’s five seniors, Chrissy Decal, Magnuson, Jankins, Mendoza, and Nunnemacher, will leave the program as champions once again, while the rest of the team will see if they can add to history next fall.
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