By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After a 21-win season and a district championship two years ago, Carl Junction’s girls soccer team was hit hard by graduation with eight seniors on the roster.
The Bulldogs followed that up with a 19-6 record last spring, but now they have to find a way to replace 11 seniors who were on that team.
“We’re hoping for around 30 players this year and we’ve lost a lot of experience with those players who graduated the last two years,” head coach Ed Miller said. “The other thing we lose is all those players played a lot of minutes. We do have some girls who came in off the bench and helped us but a lot of those girls were starting and some of our subs are going to have to step up and take those minutes over. We’re hoping for good things out of them.”
Among the players Carl Junction must replace are first team All-Central Ozark Conference forward Hannah Franks, who had 30 goals and 14 assists; Allie Wrestler, who had nine goals and 17 assists; Chrissy Figueroa, a second team COC goalkeeper who earned 10 shutouts the last two years; Joselyn Brown, a first team COC midfielder; and honorable mention COC defender Constance Graham, who was a big part in the shutouts.
Carl Junction does return four key starters in seniors Audrey Fletcher, Sara Buchele and Hailey Merwin and sophomore Ella Anderson. Fletcher is the lone returning outside defender and will be moving into the middle this spring; Buchele was more of a defensive midfielder but will move up into an attacking mid position; and Merwin and Anderson are the team’s leading returning scoring threats, with Merwin recording 13 goals and eight assists last season and Anderson scoring 19 goals and assisting on five.
“We scored 93 goals last year and we lost 60 goals and 60 assists from the girls who graduated,” Miller said. “We have a lot of holes to fill and a lot of goals and assists to make up.”
Seniors Josie Gilbert and Emily Harrison got playing time on the varsity team last season and are looking to move into roles as starters this spring. Senior Anna Burch will also be competing for a starting spot after not playing as a junior. And seniors Olivia Trosper, Alexa Evans and Letzy Poroj will also be fighting for varsity playing time.
A group of freshmen players also figures to contribute, with Grace Carrier, Hartley Parrish, Lakyn Evans and Nevaeh Triplett each in contention to see the field.
“It’ll be a growing process because we’re pretty young and there’s hardly anybody in that junior class,” Miller said. “That’s like a whole year we missed out on there; we’ve got a couple juniors but not very many. Our sophomore class is a pretty good size and we’re hoping for some good numbers this year with our freshman class.”
“We’re hoping some of those seniors are going to step up and see the field now as starters instead of subs, that they’ll embrace those roles and step in and pick up where we left off,” he said.
The Bulldogs open the regular season at Monett on March 19.
