New look for defending Panthers
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Marlborough - If the Marlborough High girls soccer team is to successfully defend the Central Mass. Division 1 title it has won the last two years and wear District E crown No. 11, the Panthers will do so with a team that looks a little more different this year than longtime coach Doug Freeman expected it to.

Freeman entered this season expecting to have to make up for the loss of five players- three-time team Most Valuable Player Hawley Rae, All-Stater Tyler Rainer, Shereen Sairafi. Michelle Marieni and Jess Wainwright - seniors on last year's title team. He found out that four other players, including two he had planned on counting on heavily, wouldn't be back, either.

Also not returning are Joy Fernandes, Sarah Schafer, Hillary Halloran and Cali Papalia. Fernandes, a junior, transferred to Northfield Mount Hermon School, a prep school in the western part of the state. Schafer exercised her school-choice option and decided to transfer to archrival Hudson High, while Halloran and Papalia chose not to play soccer this year. Schafer, Halloran and Papalia are all seniors.

"So, we thought we were losing five and we're losing nine," Freeman said. "And within those nine there are some key, key losses. Losing Hawley and Tyler will be tough, but we knew we were losing them. To also lose Joy and Sarah, two players we were expecting big, big things from this year, is in a way even harder because those losses are unexpected."

Despite the losses, the Panthers figure to be in the mix in the Mid-Wach B as well as Division 1 again this year, thanks to the 14 players and six starters who are returning, numbers that include three seniors, six juniors and some of the 11 sophomores that were on the team last year.

The seniors - as well as the Panthers - are led by the return of co-captain Amy Cramer, Freeman's centermidfielder who scored 11 goals and set up eight others last season.

"Amy's a big-game player who turns in big-time performances when we need them the most," Freeman said. "She's the quarterback of the team. The majority of our offense runs through her."

Other seniors on the team are co-captain Melissa Godere and Lindsay Emino. Godere should start at forward, Emino on defense.

Leading the junior class are a pair of returning starters, goalkeeper Jesse Bryant and outside defender Kelsey Tsai. Other juniors are Hannah Jerdee, Colleen Ryan, Brianna Kunycky and Jess Bartlett.

Jerdee, who was the team's 12th player last year, should start in the midfield. Ryan is penciled in to be the starting stopper, Kunycky will be a midfielder or a defender and Bartlett, who was a goalkeeper, has been transformed into a defender.

More than half (11 of 20) of the Panthers squad is made up of sophomores, a class that is led by Ashley Caresi, Vicky Delano and Mackenzie Lavertue. Caresi and Delano have been starting for Freeman since they were eighthgraders. Caresi, who is leftfooted naturally, will play the outside left midfield position. Last year she scored six goals and recorded four assists. Delano is a striker and Lavertue will assume Rae's old position at sweeper, moving over from the stopper position she played last year.

Other sophomores on the Marlborough roster are Lauren Papalia, Ashley Mullin, Jackie Vissat, Monica Lopez, Cathy Withers, Gisela Esquivec, Brooke Garvey and Danielle Winske.