CHESTER — The 12-seeded Vergennes Union High School girls’ soccer team’s march through the Division III playoffs came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, when undefeated No. 1 seed Green Mountain Union blanked the visiting Commodores, 3-0.
The 17-0 Chiefs advanced to a Saturday final at Bellows Falls vs. No. 2 Thetford.
The Commodores, whose regular season schedule included six games vs. the top four D-II seeds and two more against D-I’s No. 9 seed, finished at 6-11. Their wins included road victories at the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in the D-III postseason.
They played their second half of the season and the postseason, and picked up five of their wins without injured all-star center midfielder and leading scorer Emily Rooney.
But Co-Coach Pete Maneen said the semifinal belonged to Green Mountain, a team that had outscored its opposition, 88-8, before Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, it just wasn’t our day,” Maneen said. “Green Mountain is a very solid team with a number of good players, and they had us on our heels right from the start and we just couldn’t get any momentum going.”
GMUHS took the lead on a corner kick 11 minutes in, when Erin Otis scored the first of her two goals. Otis set up a Mycah White goal that made it 2-0 at the break, and she netted a 15-yarder in the second half.
GMUHS launched nine corner kicks to the Commodores’ one, and held a 14-1 advantage in shots at goal. VUHS goalie Anna Sonwaldt stopped six shots.
Six Commodores will graduate: Sonwaldt, Hannah Paquette, Kaitlyn Brace, Munro McLaren, Emma Husk and Nora Hatch.