BRUNSWICK — As the leaves turn and the temperatures begin to fall, a handful of the area’s girls high school soccer teams prepare for postseason play.

Brunswick and Mt. Ararat are right in the middle of the Class A North tourney, Morse and Freeport will battle in Class B, while Lisbon will host a quarterfinal game in Class C and Richmond will look for a 10th straight trip to the Class D regional finals.

“It’s always a new year, those are just memories and they know that,” Richmond coach Troy Kendrick said of the Bobcats’ run over the past decade.

Here’s a look at the teams that will begin play starting with preliminary matches this weekend, before heading into quarterfinal and semifinal games next week.

Class A

The 11-1-2 Brunswick Dragons will enter the North tournament as the No. 2 seed for the second year in a row. After being bounced by Bangor in the semifinals last year, the Dragons hope to make it a least a step further.

Led offensively by Anna Kousky (19 goals) and Isabella Banks (seven assists), the Dragons will face No. 7 Skowhegan in a quarterfinal match on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Brunswick defeated the Indians, 3-1, in Skowhegan last month.

Aisley Snell (37 saves) and Beth Labbe (22 saves) give head coach Martyn Davison two viable options in net as the Dragons allowed only 13 goals all season, including six to top-seeded Camden Hills recently.

The coach believes they can make a deep run as long as they stick to their game plan.

“Possession and keeping the ball for longer periods of time,” Davison said of what has worked for the Dragons this season, but also warns that they need to do a better job at “defending as a team from front to back.”

Brunswick plays Camden Hills on Saturday for the Class A Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Championship at Lewiston High School at 11 a.m.

Mt. Ararat enters postseason play with a 4-0-1 record in its last five contests, including a 1-1 tie at Brunswick earlier this week.

After failing to make the tourney last season, second-year head coach Chad Kirk has his young team poised for the “second season.”

“The team in general is just coming together,” Kirk said. “They’re starting to believe (in themselves) and the confidence is growing.”

The fifth-seeded Eagles (9-5) have received scoring from multiple individuals like Ema Hawkes, Reese Turcotte and Alexa Gurney and hope to continue their success when they travel to Bangor to take on the fourth-seeded Rams for a quarterfinal showdown at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening, a team they lost to 3-1 in September.

“We will need to continue not to foul in our defensive third,” Kirk said if his team is to continue its winning ways. “We also need to play smart in the back and don’t lunge, while keeping our physical play up.”

The winner will face the Camden Hills/Hampden Academy winner in the semifinals.

Class B

Both Morse and Freeport hope to avenge quarterfinal losses from a year ago and go further this time around.

Freeport (8-4-2) enters the tournament as the fifth-seed and will travel to two-time defending State Class B champ Yarmouth for its quarterfinal match on Wednesday (time to be announced). The Falcons split their two games with the Clippers, with each team winning on the road.

During the 4-2 loss to Yarmouth in September, head coach David Intraversato made a switch at goalie, moving Carly Intraversato to the midfield and inserting Leah Rusiecki into the net.

The move resulted in a 7-3 finish for the Falcons in their final 10 games, with Rusiecki posting a 1.33 goals-against-average with three shutouts.

“Switching keepers has worked well, we have more depth in the midfield now and stayed consistent between the pipes,” the Freeport coach said. “Leah is a very calm, smart, technical keeper.”

Another move that Coach Intraversato points to as securing his defense was moving Tara Migliaccio to the back line after a key player (senior Abbye Koenig) went down with a season-ending injury in the team’s first game.

“Tara adds incredible speed with her feet and decision-making back there,” adds the coach.

Offensively, the Falcons are led by Cat Gould. The junior scored a whopping 30 goals on the season. Rachel Wall (six goals and eight assists), Carly Intraversato (three goals and six assists) and senior Allison Greuel (three goals and four assists) also give Freeport some added firepower.

“We hope to get more scoring from others. Gould does a great job, but I would like to see someone else step up and be a scoring threat to relieve some pressure off Cat,” added the first-year coach.

At Morse, another first-year coach, Branden Noltkamper, credits the hard work and depth of his team for posting a 6-6-2 record and making it to the postseason this year.

“Our teams depth has been an important part to our success. Every person on this team has played a role to where we have gotten,” Noltkamper said. “We would not be where we are if it were not for all 22 girls on the roster and they know that.”

The Shipbuilders, who scored 18 goals this season, were led offensively by attackers Emily Martin and Julia Cliffe, with assistance from Macie Gagne and Rosa Atienza, who have helped provide attacking stability throughout the season.

Defensively, they are led by Mae Winglass, Paige Faulkingham, Hailie Johnson and Meghan Clifford, while Abby Sreden has been solid in goal.

The sixth-seeded Shipbuilders play No. 11 Lake Region (5-7-2) on Saturday at McMann Field at 6 p.m.

Class C and D

Lisbon is on a four-game win streak as the Greyhounds enter postseason play.

The 10-3-1 Greyhounds will play the winner of the Carrabec/Mt. Abram prelim game on Wednesday afternoon. After beating Carrabec in a prelim game last season, Lisbon fell to eventual State Class C runner-up Madison, 2-0, in the quarterfinals.

Their only blemishes on the schedule this year were losses to Oak Hill in the first game of the season, Winthrop and top-seeded Monmouth, all playoff teams.

Lisbon scored 59 goals this season, receiving scoring from several players, including Kiley Merritt, Giana Russo and Carly Drischler, while Destiney Dechaines, and Emma and Sophia DiGregorio held up the midfield.

On the other side of the field, sophomore Sarah Haggerty tends the net Erica Hill, Siara Martin, Abby Lebel and Caitlyn Hall are the first line of defense in front of Haggerty.

Lisbon tied Carrabec (2-2) earlier in the season and defeated Mt. Abram, 3-0, at home last month.

As Kendrick stated, while his Richmond girls are a different team like any other year and all of those championship teams are just “memories,” the Bobcats have been down this road before.

Richmond (10-3-1) had its five game winning streak snapped by losing the final two games of the season, but the Bobcats are not panicking.

“We lost to a couple of very good teams to end the season,” Troy Kendrick said. “As always, I’ve enjoyed my season with this group of girls.”

Some of the players returning from last year’s State Class D Championship team are striker Caitlin Kendrick, Ashley Brown, Bryanne Lancaster, Abby Johnson and Emma Carbone.

Others contributing this season have been Bry Shea, Lindsie Irish, Paige Lebel and Marybeth Sloat to mention a few.

Kendrick and assistant coach Patrick Gallogly have practices, as well as a “friendly match” with Hall-Dale today scheduled for the players.

“We had a team-building day on Wednesday to catch a breath, take the pressure off,” Coach Kendrick added. “They’re still keeping focus and are ready to get back to work.”

The top-seeded Bobcats will face the winner of the Saturday’s Hyde/Pine Tree Academy preliminary game on Wednesday.

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