BRUNSWICK – One of Eastern Class A’s top girls’ lacrosse goalies and one of the region’s top scorers are playing for Brunswick High this spring, and they’re helping each other get better and better

Every day in practice, Dakota Foster, a junior who was named the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference’s Class A player of the year last spring, has to find a way to get the ball past Molly Herman, a diminutive senior in her third season as the Dragons’ starting goaltender.

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Molly Herman, left, is a third-year starter in goal, and Dakota Foster is the reigning KVAC Class A player of the year for Brunswick, a perennial Eastern Class A powerhouse. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

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“She is the best,” said Foster, who scored a team-high 57 goals last spring to help the Dragons win their fifth regional championship in six seasons. “She is good and so quick it makes us better.

“We stay after practice to just work together. It makes me so much better, and it makes her better, too.”

According to Brunswick Coach Beth Caputi, the two players have to be on top of their game when they face each other during practice.

“It forces Dakota to make fakes and to (do) highs and lows,” the coach said. “Dakota can rip a shot, but she also has a lot of finesse. Having to face Molly challenges her to put a fake in, because Molly can react so quickly.

“We have a number of real good shooters on our team, and Dakota is certainly one of them. It’s great for Molly to have to deal with that.”

Herman, who is about 5 feet tall, appears too small to play in net, but she uses her speed and agility to make up for her lack of size.

“There’s plenty of big girls who can’t stop what she can,” Caputi said. “She’s great with her right hand and her left hand, and she’s very quick.”

Herman began playing in goal as a fifth-grader.

“In all honesty, it was because the stick was bigger, and it was easier to catch with,” she said.

Herman, the daughter of former Maine governor Angus King, followed in the footsteps of her brother, Ben, a junior midfielder at the University of New England.

“Lacrosse is a huge thing in my family,” she said. “When springtime comes, lacrosse is on the TV all the time. Our parents come to all my games and all of my brother’s games.”

Foster, a well-rounded athlete who scored a team-high 23 goals for the Brunswick girls’ soccer team last fall, had to be coaxed into coming out for lacrosse as a freshman.

“I played lacrosse when I was in the eighth grade, and I thought it was boring because you could just run down the field and score,” she said.

“She’s was going (to do) track her freshman year,” Herman said, “and we convinced her to play lacrosse, and she’s taking off since then.”

After spending one week with the junior varsity, Foster moved up to the varsity to play defense.

“Last year, I started playing midfield, but playing defense really helped me develop my stick skills and my understanding of the game,” she said.

Herman, who plans to play lacrosse next year at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., spent some time at a field position when she was in junior high. She said that experience aided her development as a goalie.

“Actually, I enjoy messing around with the field stick,” Herman said. “I do it to (improve) my skills because I love coming out of the goal with the ball … . At this level, a lot of girls are not use to having the goalie come out, and I just keep running and look to make a good pass.”

Foster and Herman devote a lot of time to perfecting their lacrosse game during the offseason. They play on the same lacrosse club team.

“We’re in different grades, but lacrosse has brought us together, and we’re now real close friends,” Foster said.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH

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