The Lafayette Girls Soccer Team Winning a State Championship
The culmination of a four year journey.
The Lafayette High School Girls’ Varsity Soccer team made history on June 11th, 2022 by winning the schools first State Championship for Girls soccer.
Since the school opened in 1973, the girls’ soccer teams have come very close to winning a State Championship, but always fell short. Then in the 2018-2019 season a group of freshmen joined the team, forming the foundation for what the team became last year. They had a hard end to their season their freshman year, after loosing in the first round of regionals in a PK shootout. The 2019-2020 season fostered high hopes for more, but Covid-19 put a stop to all spring sports.
In the 2020-2021 season something changed. After a year of not really having any sports, everything was in question. Expectations were low. Most people just thought this would be a rebuilding year. Then the team did the unexpected. They managed to win regionals against York High School and for the first time in years, took LHS girls’ soccer to the State Semi-finals.
The excitement was electric.
Unfortunately the semifinals were where 2020-2021 season ended. Everyone on the team was devastated, being defeated just one game away from winning the state championship. Driven to win, the team was resolved to win the following year.
In 2021-2022 five amazing freshmen joined the team, helping to strengthen any weaknesses from the year before. On the first day of tryouts head coach Kellie Ernst made it clear that we were winning a state championship and that every person on this team needed to understand it. By the end of tryouts, the team was formed:
Ten Seniors: Sydney King, Brooke Potter, Abigail Trowbridge, Reagan Hunt, Emma Moyer, Meggie Rogers, Peyton Rabb, Caitlyn Antle, Caitlin Baynard, and Maddison Adcock.
Six Juniors: Jasmin Piggott, Posey Troy, Sam Lynch, Jaelyn Palmer, Clara Burgess, and Charity Egbo.
Two Sophomores: Eva Fields and Lexi King.
Five Freshmen: Kira Moore, Taylor Walker, Reagan Hurley, Erica Kitamura, and Adriana Lightfoot.
Each person on the team played a huge role in getting to the state championship.
The 2021-2022 team had a successful record in the regular season going 14-2. The for the second year in a row they beat York High school in the regional finals, securing them a home game in the first round of states at Wanner Stadium. After winning the state quarter final, the team headed to Spotsylvania Virginia to play in the semifinal and the finals of states. On June 10th, 2022, we played in the state semifinal and won 4-2, but that was only the beginning of a crazy day.
The game ended around 11:00 am and most of the team rushed back to Williamsburg because it was also graduation day for Lafayette High School. The team’s Seniors graduated, and everyone headed back up to Spotsylvania to play in the biggest game of their high school careers.
On June 11th, 2022, everyone was ready. Every member of the team had worked hard to reach this day. We won 5-0.
When that third whistle was blown it was a bittersweet moment for everyone.
This team had finally reached their goal of winning a state championship, but as that final whistle was blown it hit everyone that they would lose ten amazing seniors, so it was a very emotional day. This was the day that Lafayette High School could finally say their girls’ soccer team had won a state championship!
