CUMBERLAND — After losing in the regional final the last two seasons, the top-seeded Greely girls’ soccer team had one mission coming into this season.
“We knew we wanted our season to end November 7th,” said Rangers senior captain Izzy Hutnak. “We’ve known since this game last year. We were excited for the next year, and we knew we wouldn’t stop until the end.”
After Hutnak delivered a hat trick in the Class B South final on Wednesday night in a 5-1 win against No. 2 York, Greely accomplished its goal. The Rangers’ season will end Saturday – on Nov. 7 – when they play North champ Hermon at 3 p.m. at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.
“You could say now, we got that monkey off our back,” said Greely Coach Josh Muscadin. “It’s been hounding us. We’ve lost in this game two years in a row. I’m just so happy for these girls. Now, we have one game left no matter. And that’s the one we want. Our goal was to be playing on November 7th, and now it’s here.”
Hutnak made sure her final home game was one she and her teammates would fondly remember. Hutnak helped give the Rangers a two-goal lead in the first half by scoring the first goal of the game and assisting on the second. She tacked on a pair of second-half goals to help secure the victory for the Rangers (15-2).
“She’s played a lot of great games at Greely, but I think today put the exclamation mark on her career,” said Muscadin. “Greely is her home, and she loves playing on this field. Tonight she came out and she wanted it. A lot of the girls wanted it today, but Izzy came out and really wanted it, you could tell.”
Said Hutnak: “None of it was an individual effort. I had great midfielders behind me dishing off great balls. This is what we came out for. We felt like if we played our game, we’d win. As seniors, this was our last game on this field. We wanted to win this game for the whole team, but there’s eight seniors who have been playing together for a long time, and we wanted to win our last game here.”
Anna DeWolfe scored the second goal for the Rangers, breaking away off of a header from Hutnak. DeWolfe also assisted a goal by Ellie Schad.
Morgan Smith scored for the Wild cats (10-4-3), who played the majority of the match with 10 players after a defender was given a red card for pulling a streaking Ranger to the ground on a potential breakaway in the opening minutes of the game.
“We were playing pretty much without a forward,” said York Coach Walter Caldwell. “I moved everybody back just to keep our shape back there to try and make something happen, and we did, we got some nice pressure and good crosses. Against a team with totally legit forwards and midfield, I thought we did a great job.
“None of them have ever been to this game, to the finals of this conference, so that in itself is a milestone. They showed a lot of heart and intensity, and we maintained composure and gave them some pressure. That’s about all you can do in this situation.”
CORRECTION: This story was updated at 8:11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5 to correct the name of the Greely coach.
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