Atlee girls soccer wins first state title in program history

It’s been a slogan the Atlee girls soccer team has built an identity around over the last two seasons, seeking that elusive title that would be the first in the program’s history.

On Saturday afternoon, they captured it, beating the Heritage Pride 4-0 on the turf field of Woodgrove High School.

"We've been ring-chasing this whole time, and we finally did it. It's really exciting,” Lacey Neff said after her final game as a Raider.

Midfielder Brooklyn Reid put the Raiders ahead with a long-range finish in the first half, and out of the break, the Raiders ran away with the game by putting three more goals on the board in the final 40 minutes, with each goal coming off the foot of a different player.

Head coach Steve D'Adamo called this the final part of a two-year process, which started last year when the Raiders won the Region 4B title but lost in the Class 4 state semifinals to eventual champion Loudoun County in overtime. They lost just a single senior from that team, and the building blocks to continue ring chasing remained intact.

"We knew coming in this year we'd have a lot of players that experienced the (region) final last year, and just knew it was a building block,” D'Adamo said. “I think just having that experience, it was more just trying to make them believe that they were as good as what our scores indicated."

The championship came directly on the heels of a close 1-0 win against the hosting Woodgrove Wolverines, who the Raiders squeaked past with a late left-footed finish from forward Sadie Ericson to advance to the state title game for the first time. Just 24 hours later, the Raiders had to regroup from that nail-biter and put the Pride at the center of their attention.

"It was definitely really hard to come back out here and play another 80 minutes, but I think we just wanted it so bad, and we were mentally here to fight for it,” Ericson said.

Despite the stakes of the game, D'Adamo prioritized as normal a process as possible before the big day. A regular team dinner, the usual ice baths, nothing out of the ordinary even as the season reached the absolute climax they’d sought since they opened the year against Lafayette in March.

"I think there was a lot of anxiety and nerves, so we really just tried to make the day normal,” said D'Adamo.

To senior leaders like Neff, a lighthearted warmup is actually a fruitful tactic for the group, even as the season reached its great crescendo.

"We don't have to be a serious team, especially our coach Steve, he makes it a fun environment, making us have a good vibe for the game,” Neff said.

When Reid struck the back of the net within the first 20 minutes of the game, it put the pressure on Heritage to retaliate, but Atlee’s backline hardly sacrificed costly giveaways on their side of the field.

A little more than 13 minutes into the second half, midfielder Lauren Woolard created a corner kick with a shot on goal, then capitalized on the ensuing opportunity from the middle of the 18-yard box, rocketing the ball past the keeper for a two-goal advantage.

Less than 10 minutes later, Ericson, the hero of the semifinals, made it 3-0, scoring from just inside the box and remaining as cool and unfazed as if the goal was just on a regular season stage. But she knew; that goal felt like Heritage’s death knell.

“I felt like the third goal was really sealing it,” Ericson said.

Fresh off the bench, rising sophomore Maddie Jeffrey added one more goal-scoring strike for good measure, propelling the Raiders into school history. In three state tournament games, the Raiders outscored their opponents 7-0.

D'Adamo, in his fourth year overseeing the program, saw his first group of freshmen develop into senior leaders, ending their Raider careers with hardware in hand.