Lafayette, La. — Two more girls soccer teams hoisted LHSAA state championship trophies Friday in Lafayette, with Isidore Newman and St. Scholastica winning state titles.
In the first game of the day in the Division IV championship, Newman defeated Episcopal of Acadiana 2-0 for their third-straight state title. Charlotte Williams scored the Greenies first goal of the game in the 26th minute, with an assist from Gabrielle Reginelli. They built-on their 1-0 lead in the second half with a goal from Anna Katherine Aluise in the 71st minute. Aluise was named the game MVP.
“This isn’t their first rodeo,” said Newman Girls Soccer Head Coach Heather Fitzgerald. “They knew what they had to do when they walked onto the field. We had a game plan set– just play our game and work hard and mentally be tough enough to not let any mistakes happen that would cost us. This will be our third in a row but I believe this is number 10 in program history so it’s nice to hit double digits and it’s awesome to hit a three-peat.”
Next-up was the Division I championship game, where St. Scholastica came-back from an own-goal deficit to beat Mandeville 3-1. After trailing 1-0 at halftime, SSA scored all 3 of their goals in a 20 minute span after the break. Brogan Bernadas scored the first, with an assist from Megan Isolani, then Isolani found Mary Ella White for their second goal, and finally White got it to Sydney Vincens for their last goal of the game.
“We played a little looser in the second half,” said SSA Girls Soccer Head Coach Michael Ortner. “When you go down by a goal, you just kind of re-group. We changed formations a little bit and went with kind of what worked for us in the past and were able to create some overloads and some good chances.”
This is the Doves 6th championship and first since 2015. Mary Ella White was named the game MVP.
“Absolutely incredible,” Ortner said. “We can’t say it enough– we were down 4 of our best players that we lost this season. To be able to do that and come back and have a convincing second half, I couldn’t be more proud of the team. It means everything to us.”