Tiverton H.S. Girls Soccer off to Strong Start to Defend Ocean State Summer Cup Title

Tiverton High School girls have opened defense of their Ocean State Summer Cup Division 2 title. As two-time champs, THS expects to challenge for league supremacy once again. Coach Mike Janick reports only 3 players from last year’s team graduated and THS welcomed 6 incoming Freshmen who are showing signs of being solid players.

Tiverton started the season June 19 with a 7-0 victory over Coventry. Goal scorers that day were Erica Farias, Lia Thornton, Amy Thornton, Mackenzie Mello, Olivia Bergandy, Rebecca Mauricio and Samantha Welchman while assists went to Mackenzie Mello, Regan Burke, Lia Thornton, Sam Welchman (2), Erica Farias and Jackie Wilson. Haley Higginbottom and Kayla Paull recorded the shutout in goal with Alli Benevides, Maya Bergandy, Grace Cavanagh and Eileen Kinnane providing a strong defense in front of them.

 On June 26, Tiverton lost for the first time in the 3 years of the Summer Cup competition to defending Division 2 High School Girls Champions Exeter-West Greenwich. The final score was 3-1. After trailing 2-0 at the half, Tiverton put together a solid second half where each team scored once. Tiverton’s lone goal was scored by Samantha Welchman with an assist from Olivia Bergandy. However the story of this game was how Tiverton was plagued by multiple missed scoring opportunities. Several breakaways in the second half ended with the shot going wide or being smothered by the EWG goalie.

There were several bright spots however including the midfield play of Caroline Wilson, Colleen Gillis and Regan Burke and the goalkeeping of Haley Higginbottom and Elizabeth Janick who both came up with big stops to keep the game tight.

Most recently on July 10, Tiverton defeated East Providence 4-1. Sam Welchman scored 3 goals and Caroline Wilson had 1 goal. Eileen Kinnane had 2 assists and Jackie Wilson assisted on her sister’s goal while Emily Machado also had 1 assist. Tiverton received solid goalkeeping from Elizabeth Janick with Erica Farias, Alli Benevides and Kayla Paull providing excellent defense.