Every so often, a high school soccer team will see one of its players reach the vaunted 100-goal mark for their career.
The powerhouse Hermon girls soccer team doesn’t just have one 100-goal scorer. This season, they have two who have joined the exclusive club.
Senior Madison Stewart set a new school record with 113 goals for her career in the Hawks’ 5-1 weekend playoff win over Presque Isle. Teammate and fellow senior Natalie Tardie isn’t far behind, having crossed the 100-goal threshold herself in recent weeks.
Stewart got the history-making 113th goal on a pass from Erin Selleck, one of the team’s co-captains along with Tardie.
Hermon coach MJ Ball said the team rallied around Stewart in her push to break the school’s scoring record.
“Everyone wanted to be the assist on the 100th, and then the assist on the 106th, which put her in second, and then obviously to get the 113 and beat 112 is pretty special,” Ball said.
Along with the goal-scoring prowess, his Hawks squad remains perfect 16-0 this season heading into the Class B North regional championship game Wednesday against the 15-1-1 Skowhegan River Hawks.
That regional final will be played at 4:30 p.m. at Cameron Stadium in Bangor.
While Hermon has been passing all sorts of goal-scoring milestones, its main goal since the start of the season has been to finally bring home a long-elusive state championship. The Hawks were runners-up in the state title game a year ago, and have won the North region six out of 11 seasons under Ball without an ultimate victory in the state game.
“Obviously, our goal is to get to the states and finally win one,” Ball said. “But when you have milestones that you can be a part of, and history you can be a part of, it kind of adds a little spice to the season.”
That meant the players were really excited, both for Stewart’s new record and for Tardie getting to 100 goals.
“In years past, we’ve always had a prolific goal scorer,” Ball said. “It is certainly a blessing to have two, because they each get a lot of pressure from the opposing teams.”
He said that opponents know both Tardie and Stewart are very good on the ball, can shoot at any time and have breakaway speed. So that leads defenses to try to stop them with double teams.
“But when you double team one, obviously that leaves another one open,” Ball said. “So it’s nice to have that double-pronged attack.”
Ball said Stewart has the ability to score in “a multitude of different ways,” whether that’s using her head out of the air, creating space for herself to take a long-distance shot, or finding the ball in the box and putting it away.
“If she gets in the box, the other team’s in trouble because she’s very composed and finds corners,” Ball said about Stewart.
As for Tardie, Ball said the bulk of her goals are generated from long-distance shots or breakaways.
“She’s very crafty on the ball, and she’s got a change of pace,” Ball said.
And while these two prolific scorers have been finding the back of the net a lot for the Hawks, Ball emphasized that it has all been a team effort.
“I think both Natalie and Madison would agree that they wouldn’t be 100-plus goal scorers without the players that are finding them,” Ball said.
He said the Hawks could make more history by bringing home that first state title, but stressed that they first need to focus on Skowhegan. And it’s not just going to be about scoring goals in Wednesday’s regional final, which he expects to be the hardest game of the season so far.
“Skowhegan stands in our way, and we’re gonna do everything in our power to earn the opportunity to finally get that gold ball,” Ball said. “But there’s gonna be a lot more defensive work that’s gonna need to be done.”
