Milford girls soccer shuts out Pembroke to get to D2 championship

NASHUA - Syd Thibault was thinking about getting an early goal.

Going into Thursday's Division II girls soccer semifinals, the Milford High School sophomore had scored her fair share of goals this season, and coach Russ Matthews stressed how important it was for the Spartans to start strong.

Just five minutes into the game, Thibault did what No. 6 Milford planned to do, as she gave the Spartans the only goal they'd need in a 2-0 win over No. 2 Pembroke at Stellos Stadium in Nashua. Milford (12-3-4) moves on to face No. 5 Hanover in the D2 championship game Sunday at 12 p.m. at Stellos.

"Score early," Matthews said. "We wanted to get them on their heels and have them chase. If teams are trying to chase us, they’re going to extend themselves and we can exploit that. It was good for us to try that."

Pembroke (13-2-3) had other ideas and did everything it could against the Spartans' defense except score. Milford put the game away in the final minutes, when a shot by Thibault hit the post and the rebound went across the front of the goal right to Alli Ciardelli, who knocked it into the back of the net.

"I can’t even describe it, it’s incredible," Milford senior co-captain Meg Sawyer said. "I’ve been looking forward to this since the start of the season. We have the greatest group of girls and we’ve been together since middle school.

"We work so hard, everybody on the team just gives everything they have a hundred percent of the time and it feels so great to finally be here."

It's the first time Milford is in the title game since winning it all in 2012.

After a strong start to the season, the Spartans struggled with scoring down the stretch, going 2-2-3, including a tie with Pembroke in the next-to-last game of the regular season. In the losses and ties, Milford averaged just one goal in those five games.

"We always want to get it in the goal quickly because sometimes we have a problem with scoring," Milford senior co-captain Colette Urda said. "A lot of our games we’ve just tied because we can’t finish. Getting it in the beginning of the game, you’re so excited, but you can’t let one in."

Milford was able to withstand Pembroke's pressure, thanks to goalie Katie Lorden (seven saves) and Sophie Grill and Renee Wilson on the backline.

"Renee (Wilson) she was huge," Matthews said. "She was a JV player who I swung up and played with us through the season. She found herself in a starting role because of her speed and she’s fierce.

"They’re good, they’re fast, they’re good in the air, so they do a lot of things that are tricky to handle as defenders. We held our own though. We just kept digging in."