After a convincing win over St. Johnsbury on September 20, the girls had one day off and had to travel to Morrisville to take on People's Academy on Monday, September 29. Despite starting slow and not playing well, the scored was tied 0-0 at halftime. HU picked up its level of play and dominated possession and balls in the air and, with just 15 minutes remaining, freshman Liza Mackey scored a hard fought goal to go ahead.
Unfortunately, a minute later, People's came back to tie it up and with just five minutes to go in the match they scored another to take a 2-1 lead. Despite outshooting their opponent 10-4, the Harwood girls just couldn't find the back of the net. Taylor Burdett made just two saves in the match.
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On Wednesday, September 24, the Lady Highlanders hosted Stowe and once again dominated the match in all areas of play. They outshot Stowe by a 15-3 margin but once again could not finish. The lone Stowe goal came in the first half off of a missed clearance attempt for the Highlanders. Taylor Burdett made only two saves in the loss. This was the first time all season that the Highlanders were shutout.
With two losses in a row in their minds, the girls took on cross-town rival Green Mountain Valley School on Saturday, September 27. The game proved to be another great HU versus GMVS match-up where athleticism and physical play take over. The game was scoreless after the first 39:59 seconds of the first half until Julienne Vergura scored off an assist from Ariel Goodman as time ran out.
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The play started from a restart with just 12 seconds remaining in the half. Goodman served a terrific ball to the far post where Vergura found a way to get to it before the buzzer sounded. The Highlanders brought a bigger sense of determination in the second half and scored the game's second goal just six minutes into the half from Mariah Liberty (six season goals) with an assist from Celia Cadwell. The two goals proved to be enough as senior goalkeeper McColl Harvey made six saves to secure the team's sixth shutout of the season.
The team travels to Montpelier on Thursday, October 2, at 6 p.m. for what is being billed as one of the "big matches" of the season in central Vermont.
