Girls' Soccer Finishes Regular Season Perfect

Unlike , the Narragansett girls’ soccer team left little to chance on Wednesday, dominating every portion of their regular season finale for a 10-4 win.

The Mariners (16-0 Division III) quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes, thanks to a goal by senior Jackie Iannucci, and a goal by junior Carla Porras that Iannucci assisted on.

Burrillville (14-2 Division III) had little time to catch its breath. Freshman Chelsea Sahagian scored in the eighth minute, with junior Lauren Wade assisting. To end the early scoring flourish, senior Hailey Kisseberth put one in the back of the net in the 13^th minute.

Narragansett head coach Kathryn Mahoney said she was much happier with the effort Wednesday afternoon.

“We talked a lot about letting them [St. Raphael’s] hang around,” she said, adding that she wasn’t happy that they had a similar let down at the start of the second half.

“Right now, we’re not coming out in the second half like I want them to,” Mahoney said.

The Mariners led 5-1 at the half, as their final first half goal came in the 39^th minute. Junior Dolci Wagner headed in a nice crossing pass from senior Emily Wright.

However, Burrillville scored in the 40^th minute, and added two quick goals in the second half to pull within 5-3.

Narragansett answered by reinserting their starters and scoring the next four goals. Porras finished with a hat trick, and Sahagian and Iannucci each added a second cap. Wade scored Narragansett’s final goal in the 78^th minute on a pass from Kisseberth.

The final moments weren’t without a bit of drama though, as Iannucci tweaked an ankle. However, following the game, she said that she didn’t think it was a serious injury.

The Mariners also likely do not start the playoffs until a week from Saturday, giving her a good amount of time to rest up. Several Division I teams don’t finish their schedules until next week, and the playoffs for Divisions I, II and III run concurrently.

Narragansett finishes the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record. According to online records, no Mariner girls’ soccer team dating back to 1998 finished perfect. The best finish was , at 12-1-3. It was the Mariners’ first championship since 1988, when they won the Division II crown.

However, an undefeated regular season record is no guarantee of postseason success – The Mariners only need to look to last year for an example. St. Raphael’s finished 14-0, but Middletown got lucky in the seeding, and beat them 7-5 in a home game in the semifinals.

Mahoney and Iannucci both mentioned that they felt the heavily back-loaded schedule would help the team out come playoffs.

“Of course we’re a bit more confident now, having seen every team,” Mahoney said. “I think the goal from day one has been to go undefeated … With a lofty goal like that, they had to play hard.”

Iannucci added, “We definitely feel more confident. We had to prove to ourselves that we could beat [every team].”

Mahoney said the team had dedicated the season to the mothers of junior Abby Soscia and assistant coach Jenny Sayles. Both passed away in the past year.

She added that the team was “excited” about the playoffs, as opposed to last year’s team, which she thought played a bit more nervous.

Iannucci agreed with her assessment.

“There are less nerves, more excitement versus last year,” she said.

“It’s about keeping the right mentality, and not getting overconfident, despite the record of 16-0,” Mahoney said.

For more photos from Wednesday afternoon’s game, check out SRIN’s Facebook page here.