LEOMINSTER — Unfortunately, it was tough for the Georgetown girls soccer team to focus on anything other than the two numbers on the final scoreboard.
For the Royals, Monday night was the end of an epic year.
Making its first appearance in a state semifinal in exactly a decade, No. 5 Georgetown and seniors Shannon Gibbs, Reese Nazzaro, Reese Martin, Avery Upite, Alexis Sheahan and Ella Thompson were looking to extend their year to the final day of the fall season. However, No. 1 Douglas proved too big of a challenge, and put together a complete 80-minute performance to eliminate the Royals in a 4-0 shutout at Doyle Field.
But there’s another important number these Royals need to remember: 48.
Otherwise known as: The record amount of wins the program has earned over the past four years.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group, they worked really hard,” said Georgetown coach Kevin Fair. “They’re a great group of kids and I miss them already. I have six wonderful seniors who are going to be missed dearly, and who had a major impact on this program. This group of seniors won 48 soccer games, which is unbelievable to think about. When you look at the most successful periods that Georgetown has ever had, this was the most successful.
“So those seniors will always have that, which is pretty awesome.”
You can just go through the years.
2021: 12-6-2, Round of 16.
2022: 13-6-2, Quarterfinals.
2023: 11-8-2, Quarterfinals.
2024: 12-7-3, Semifinals.
And you could argue that this year’s 12 wins were the most impressive of the bunch.
It’s been well documented here, but at one point during the regular season, Georgetown was playing with seven of its 11 opening-day starters watching from the sideline injured. A couple of them — starting goalie Talya Mariani included — unfortunately went down with season-enders. But even through all of the roster shuffling and adversity, the Royals just continued to march forward.
Hey, that’s just the culture the program has built.
“I’m just proud of all they were able to do,” said Fair. “We have a really solid junior class that we’re excited about, then nine sophomores who ended up playing a lot this year with the injuries. They got some great experience.”
But Monday night, Douglas (16-5-1) was the better team.
It took just four minutes for the Tigers to find the back of the net, with junior midfielder Sadie O’Toole catching up to a long pass, one-touching around a defender and rocketing a bullet home. Julia Kaminski bended in a beautiful shot into the upper-left corner to double her team’s lead, then a strike from Meghan Brazeau made it 3-0 Tigers just 20 minutes into the game.
“(Douglas) is a very good team,” said Fair. “They play a beautiful, possession-based game. We just came out and the moment was a little big for us at the beginning. It took us a while to settle in. I was happy once we settled in, we created some chances. But it just wasn’t our night.”
Seeing as Douglas hadn’t conceded three goals in a game all season, the hole Georgetown dug itself in was quite deep.
But the Royals didn’t quit.
Sophomore striker Kat Greenblatt created a couple of chances, as did Jenna Johnson and Sheahan. And after a rough opening 20 minutes, Gibbs, Martin, Liana Nakatsugawa, Penny Church and Alana Smith locked down on defense and in the midfield in front of junior goalie Katie Davies (13 saves).
But Georgetown just couldn’t buy a goal.
It remained a 3-0 game into halftime, and the Royals’ lone corner of the second half came up empty. O’Toole then called game when she blasted home her second goal of the night from 25 yards out with 20 minutes left.
“(‘O’Toole) for them is a fantastic player,” said Fair. “We knew how good she was, we had scouted them well. But our stepping defensively was a little late, and we weren’t as tight on our marks as we needed to be tonight.”