3 STATE CUP CHAMPIONS!

Goal #1 -- Averi and Jamie Celebrating with Katherine Swallow After Her First Goal

Goal # 2 -- Checkered Jerseys Mob Katherine After Her Second Goal

Goal # 3 -- Even Tori Gets Into The Celebration of Molly Hemond's Goal

Holly Lesperance Closing Down Seacoast's Talented Attack

Having put six teams into the State Cup finals, the C.O.E. can say, without adding any more to the discussion, that it has already had a breakthrough year. The breakthrough is now underscored by three State Cup champions -- the U-12 boys, the U-13 girls and the U-18 girls. The U-12 boys took a convincing 3-1 win over the Concord Express trumping the draw these two teams had in the group stage. Shortly thereafter, the U-13 girls delivered a convincing 3-1 effort over a strong Seacoast squad. The U-13 girls were able to play a high pressure game well into Seacoast's defending half of the field which cut off the supply to and left stranded Seacoast's talented attacking players. The U-13s and the U-18s are now scheduled to represent New Hampshire at the Region 1 championships in West Virginia over the fourth of July weekend. New Hampshire has declined to send its U-12, 8 v 8 team to West Virginia so their remarkable season comes to a close , ready for a restart in August.

No discussion of championship Sunday is complete without reference to the other finalists who fell a little short. The U-11s, in their first foray into the state cup competition, played up a year in the U-12 competition and fell to Seacoast 5-0. The result was a real reversal of fortune from the group stage when the girls beat the same Seacoast team 3-2. Full credit to the Seacoast girls who came ready to play their full roster of players. The U-15s came up tantalizingly short in a 2-1 loss against Seacoast. The game was knotted at 0-0 going into halftime. At the restart, Seacoast exploited a couple of lapses in defensive concentration and scored two goals in quick succession. Thereafter, the C.O.E. girls pressed the attack and, in the closing minutes clawed back one goal but, despite continued pressure on the Seacoast defense, it was a little too late to find the second, equalizing goal. The U-16s fell to their Seacoast rivals 3-1 in a game that was closer than the score implies. The C.O.E. girls drew first blood and battled in a 1-1 setting until the later stages of the game. With two critical injuries to important defensive players the thinly rostered team's energy started flagging and the two goals that broke the game open for Seacoast were the result.