Six locals to play in Lions Cup soccer games
Six freshly graduated Upper Valley high school senior soccer players will take the field at Hanover High on Saturday for the Lions Twin State Cup games.
The event is now in its 48th year and pits top seniors from New Hampshire and Vermont whose high school careers have just ended against each other.
Woodstock midfielder Isabel Konijnenberg is the headliner for the Vermont girls. Konijnenberg led the Wasps with 15 goals and 10 assists in 17 games as Woodstock reached the VPA Division III semifinals. Also a standout in hockey and lacrosse, Konijnenberg was Woodstock’s valedictorian as well and will play soccer at Williams College beginning this fall.
Shannon Hadlock, a midfielder from White River Valley, will be on the Vermont girls’ team as well. Hadlock may not have received the attention her teammate — forward Jillian Barry — did, but she was just as integral to the Wildcats’ best-ever season in 2022. WRV went 10-2-2 in the regular season and posted its first playoff victory since the school was formed in 2018. Wildcats head coach Kim Prestridge will be an assistant for the Green Mountain State girls’ squad.
Lebanon midfielder Mary Rainey, a Bowdoin College signee and also a valedictorian, will suit up for the New Hampshire girls. Rainey’s nine goals and five assists both led the Raiders, who lost in the NHIAA Division II first round to John Stark.
Stevens, which outscored its opponents 75-5 en route to an NHIAA D-III semifinals appearance, will be represented by Stella Lavertue. Also a basketball starter, Lavertue had 13 goals and 14 assists just through the Cardinals’ first 10 games. She will play soccer at Colby-Sawyer College.
The Hanover boys reached the NHIAA Division I title game for the second straight year, and a big part of the Bears’ success was goalkeeper Ty Nolon, who will play for the New Hampshire boys on Saturday. Nolon allowed exactly one goal per game and had 10 clean sheets, including three in a row in the postseason to lead Hanover to the final. He will continue his soccer career at Wheaton (Mass.) College.
Lebanon defenseman Francis Calandrella is also on the Granite State boys’ roster. Calandrella helped anchor a Raiders’ defense that, like Hanover’s, allowed exactly one goal per game, holding their opponents scoreless six times.
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New Hampshire won last year’s girls’ game, 4-1, with the boys’ contest ending in a 1-1 draw. The Granite State leads the all-time series 20-14-5 on the girls’ side and 19-18-10 on the boys’. This year’s girls’ game kicks off at 1 p.m., and the boys will follow at 4.
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.