By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Publisher
The Holy Spirit girls soccer team had an outstanding season in 2015, winning 15 games. But the Spartans didn’t win their last game. And that overtime loss to Moorestown Friends in the Non-Public B South championship game left a sour aftertaste.
The good news is the Spartans return the vast majority of their starting lineup, losing only defender Danielle Conaghy. Her sister, Christine, returns as a senior after scoring 25 goals last season. The Spartans also enter the 2016 season with plenty of motivation after coming so close to winning the school’s first girls soccer sectional title.
“I’m not trying to harp on the end of last season too much. It comes more from the girls. They were very upset about the outcome of last year’s (sectional) final, so it’s more of them wanting this,” said coach Alicia Downey. “Obviously, I want it, but it’s more from them. They are hungry.”
Downey’s sadness about the loss in last year’s state final was turned to happiness about a week later when she gave birth to daughter Payton, who she expects in about a month or so will be able to run around the soccer field with the girls. Downey’s already got some little Holy Spirit T-shirts for young Payton. The Holy Spirit players took a more serious tone when it came to this year’s T-shirts.
“My girls, I always have them pick something to put on the back of our T-shirts, and this year they picked ‘unfinished business.’ So, I think that says a lot. They are hungry and ready for this year,” Downey said.
Holy Spirit has plenty of star power returning. Senior forward Kira McCulley is one of the top players in the Cape-Atlantic League and forms a solid 1-2 punch up top with Conaghy, and senior Ayanna Jones returns in net after playing soccer for the first time last fall. The basketball standout picked up the sport quickly, and by season’s end was one of the better goalies in the league.
“Ayanna had a very good year for that being her first year of playing soccer. She’s come in this year ready to learn more, and she’s gotten better,” Downey said. “She’s one of the most athletic girls I’ve seen in the last five years here, so I think she’s capable of being one of the top goalkeepers in the CAL this year. She didn’t do a lot of specialized training this summer because of her basketball schedule, but she was able to make most of our summer workouts.”
Downey also has some outstanding athletes in twin sisters Paxton and Addison Antonucci, whose brother, Cade, is a varsity football player and state champion in the javelin during the track season. Downey said she’s expecting big things from the Antonucci twins, who both have been playing varsity since their freshman years and are still just juniors heading into this year.
“Addison plays midfield forward for us. Her freshman year, she was one of our top goal scorers. She has an insane shot, so if we can get her more consistent with that shot, you’ll see a lot of goals out of her,” Downey said. “And Paxton, I moved her to center back last year and she was one of our most consistent players.”
Downey said a big focus for the Spartans this year will be finishing around the net. Conaghy was a big-time scoring threat, but when teams were able to shut her down the Spartans had trouble scoring goals.
“I feel like we are in a very good spot. We only lost one senior starter, so we’re pretty lucky in that aspect. They know what it’s like to get there, and they want to get back there. They know what I expect. They came in this summer fit, and we can play around with some things this year. They are already excelling,” Downey said. “We play pretty good possession. The big thing for us this year is finishing. We did have Christine score 25 goals last year, but she had the bulk of our goals. I’d really like to get a few more girls up in that range so we can count on more than just one person to finish. That’s one of the biggest goals for us, to finish more. We have a few players who are very capable, it’s just a matter of doing it. I think this year you’ll see many more girls finishing and not just one.”
Downey said she knows her team is capable of competing for a South Jersey championship, but said the Spartans have plenty to focus on before November. They want to avenge some CAL losses from a year ago to teams such as Oakcrest, Middle Township and Cedar Creek. Cedar Creek handed Holy Spirit two of its five regular-season losses last year.
“We want to get back to the state finals, but we also have a lot of rivalries and teams we lost to last year that we want to beat this year. We’re not just looking all the way forward to the state playoffs, we have some business to attend to before that,” Downey said. “This group is one of the best I’ve had in my five years. They play for each other, they are friends off the field. It’s a good team atmosphere we have. I think going forward, we should do really well. They want to win for each other and they want to win for Holy Spirit. We’ve never won a state final, and I think if we can bring that home to Spirit the girls would be very happy.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays