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Kuzmich’s path to the net paved by obstacle at young age

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Kuzmich during the semifinals last season. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Syklar Kuzmich is in her fourth year as W-H’s starting goalkeeper.

Faced with an obstacle at a young age that could have halted her soccer career, Skylar Kuzmich found her niche elsewhere on the pitch.

After jumping into the sport a few years prior, Kuzmich hit a bump in the road when she was 11. Running up and down the field was proving too much as her asthma was getting the best of her, leaving the then-middle schooler with two options.

“I could either quit the sport or become a goalkeeper,” Kuzmich explained.

She chose the latter. Then, she spent the next years in town and club play mastering the position before arriving in high school where she’d blossom into one of the state’s best goalkeepers.

Kuzmich, now a senior, has started for Whitman-Hanson Regional High’s girls’ soccer team since she was a freshman. The Panthers own a 58-5-3 record and haven’t fallen short of the South Sectional semifinals in her first three seasons, a span she’s posted 37 shutouts in.

“I always know that even if I mess up on defense, Sky is there and I trust Sky because she is an amazing goalie,” classmate and fellow captain Sammy Smith said. Last season was when Kuzmich took her game to a new level, posting shutouts in 10 of 19 games. She earned Patriot League All-Star recognition.

After falling to league rival Hingham, 3-1, Oct. 17, W-H found itself with a rematch against the Harborwomen on the road in the South Sectional quarterfinals Nov. 7.

Kuzmich turned away numerous shots in the first half to keep the score deadlocked at 1-1, before the Panthers pulled ahead 2-1 in the second and that’s where it would stand.

“She made three of four saves there that absolutely gave us an opportunity to win the game,” head coach Dave Floeck recalled. “I’m hoping we don’t have to see too many highlight-reel saves but we’re happy that we have her there to make a few if she needs to.”

Kuzmich stopped 16 shots in the game.

“She makes these amazing saves and I’m jealous because I don’t know how she does it,” Smith said. “She’s like a ninja.”

Jealousy isn’t all that flows through Smith’s mind watching Kuzmich, a Hofstra University commit, protect the Panthers’ goal.

“I’m confident with her behind me in net at all times,” Smith said.

Kuzmich said that while she deals with the same struggles most all goalkeepers do, her attitude allows her to stay sane in net.

“After you let up a goal you have to have a goldfish mindset,” Kuzmich said. “Forget about it [and] move on to the next save. You can’t let it get in your head or else you’ll let in another one and part of that is you just need to be a little crazy too because one, you’re diving at the ball all the time and two, you have to forget something that just happened even if it was your mistake.”

Floeck said that while he’s had to circle in numerous players on the backline over the past few seasons and plans to do the same this fall, he can count on Kuzmich to put them in the right positions to succeed.

“We’ll have some different people on defense and she’s the one, she’s the conductor of that,” he explained. “I’ve said from Day 1 that one of her greatest attributes is the saves she never has to make because she organizes our defense so well that she shuts off opportunities before they get to her. She can still make the game-saving save, but she shuts off a lot.”

Smith is headed to ‘dream school’

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Smith in the Panthers’ home tilt against Pymouth North last season. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Senior Sammy Smith, an Eagle in waiting, wants to finish her senior season with a “bang.”

She was almost a Wildcat, but then the Eagles came soaring in.

Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ soccer senior captain and back Sammy Smith was committed to the University of New Hampshire for soccer — a decision she made last year — until a roster error paved the way for her “dream school” to come calling.

“For my club — the U-18 team that I play on — I’m like the youngest player on that team, so I qualify to play with the U-17 team and everyone on that team is good,” Smith explained. “They want to go to college and they’re seriously looking into college soccer.

“So, I played with them (the U-17 team) in one tournament and on the roster — the manager of that team — didn’t have me committed to UNH. So, all the coaches who came to that game were like ‘Who’s this? She’s not committed? I thought she was committed to UNH.’’’

So, the phone calls began as coaches tried to lure the two-time Patriot League All-Star and reigning first-team EMass selection onto their respective campus.

“One of the coaches at my club was like ‘All these colleges are contacting you, do you want to look into them?’’’ Smith recalled.

Smith obliged and she’s happy she did because Boston College was one of the them.

“In the end, BC has always been my dream school,” said Smith, who committed there in June. “I’m so happy to be able to play there next year.”

Smith might not even be the happiest one in her family about the decision.

“My parents are happy,” she said. “My parents are ecstatic. They didn’t mind the UNH — like two hours away — but right down the road, 40 minutes to BC, and plus my mom went there.”

W-H girls’ soccer head coach Dave Floeck said Smith, who has started for him since she was a freshman, is one of the most athletic girls he’s ever coached.

“She’s super quick and everything else, but her ability to change directions — while being full speed when most kids can’t do that, they have to take an extra step — gives her the advantage,” the 23rd-year head coach said.

“She is tremendous in tight spaces and if she gets in open space, she covers 60 to 70 yards dribbling the ball faster than people can do it without a ball. She’s just a supreme talent and that’s why BC snatched her.”

Panthers senior goalkeeper Skylar Kuzmich said having a player on the field of Smith’s caliber — someone who can excel at multiple positions and on both ends of the pitch — is an immense asset.

“Sam is a great player and it’s funny because she already does play offense when she’s on defense because she dribbles through everyone and then goes up field, but with her there, I feel great, but without her [at defender] we’re going to score goals,” Kuzmich said.

Smith said she doesn’t let the fact that she’s going to a top collegiate women’s soccer school alter the way she goes about her business.

“I try to get touches on the ball every single day,” Smith said. “There’s no moment where I’m not thinking about soccer. I watch soccer, I play it every single day, but I try to not let it get to my head. I don’t want to have a big head, like, ‘Hey, I’m going to BC,’ I don’t let it get to me. I play like a normal player.”

Smith’s commitment adds to a long list of Panthers girls’ soccer players to head to the Division 1 ranks. Lauren Bonavita and Taylor Kofton, both of whom graduated last spring, are in their freshman campaigns at UMass Amherst and Boston University, respectively.

For Smith, the goal this season is to end it and her Panthers soccer career with a “big bang.”

“Oh, I want to win a state championship,” she said.

Johnson’s return bolsters Panthers on defense

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Johnson throws the ball in during a Panthers tilt against Silver Lake last season. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Senior Olivia Johnson is back from a broken wrist sustained in the Panthers’ final game of the season last fall.

From what looked minor from afar was anything but for Olivia Johnson.

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ soccer captain was in the wrong place at the wrong time during the Panthers’ Div. 1 South Sectional semifinal tilt against Newton South last season. Roughly midway through the first half, an attack into the W-H zone induced a scrum. Panthers defender Sammy Smith was there to clear the ball and pelted a shot that struck Johnson’s left hand, breaking her wrist in half in the process.

“I knew right away that it was going to be a big injury,” Johnson said. “A lot of my teammates thought that I got hit in the stomach and they were like ‘Get up, get up, get up,’ and I’m like ‘I can’t.’”

Panthers senior goalkeeper Skylar Kuzmich said she remembers the moment Johnson went down.

“It was bad and very tough to watch,” Kuzmich said.

The injury sidelined Johnson for the remainder of the game – a 2-1 Panthers loss, which ended their season – and put her on the shelf for the beginning of winter sports.

“I was actually more concerned about not being able to play in the game and with basketball coming up the next season, just not being able to participate,” Johnson said.

Surprisingly, Johnson, who was in a cast for three months on and off, only missed four basketball games.

“When I think about it now, if that was my senior year and I couldn’t play in the rest, I’d be devastated,” Johnson said.

Well, it wasn’t her senior year, of course, meaning the dual-sport athlete has one more go-around to assure healthy campaigns.

The Panthers are going to need her more than ever on the pitch after the graduation of a pair of stalwarts on defense in Betty Blake and Elana Wood.

“OJ’s going to be a great leader out on the field this year and I think she’s going to give great direction and talk a lot in the back with me, especially if Sam (Smith) moves up to offense,” Kuzmich said.

Johnson, despite being ready for game action, said she’s still sharpening the “little things.”

“I’ve been working on mental toughness on defense, staying fit, staying agile and stuff like that,” she said.

As for Johnson’s wrist, “It’s still not fully healed,” she said. “They don’t think my motion will ever be healed.”

Season Preview: Young Panthers girls’ soccer team is ready to go

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The girls’ soccer team during a scrimmage against Mansfield Aug. 25. / Photo by: Sue Moss

The Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ soccer team will be led by a trio of senior captains, who will have a young core around them.

Another season, another clean slate for the Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ soccer team.

The program, which has not had a losing campaign since 1999, also hasn’t fallen short of the sectional semifinals — which occurred last fall — in the past four seasons.

In 2014, the Panthers made it to the state title game, in 2015 they made the sectional title game and their 2016 season ended with a loss in thestate semifinals.

“I’m pretty fortunate that we get some really talented players that come through and I think we as a coaching staff are smart enough not to get in their way,” head coach Dave Floeck said. “I think we’ve been blessed that the program has established itself so younger kids in the fourth, fifth, six grade, who want to be a part of the program, are already working towards that and working their skills to get here.

“And so, year after year we graduate great players and then in comes some other great players and that’s how we’ve been able to have success.”

Coming into this fall Floeck’s club, which went 17-2-2 last season, has some major losses with the graduation of past captains and fouryear starters — defender Elana Wood and midfielder/forward Eve Montgomery.

“They’d played in everything from a state championship game to right on down so they were able to share that with everybody, so it’s a big void but we have a couple other seniors returning that have a lot of experience and we’re looking forward to their leadership as well,” Floeck said.

Defender Betty Blake and midfielders Katie Korzec and Taylor Kofton (2016 All-American) were also cornerstone pieces who have graduated as well.

2017 All-American Lauren Bonavita and her 43 goals last season and school-record 113 leaves the toughest hole to plug, and Floeck isn’t even going to try to do that.

“It was a one-man wrecking crew,” the 23rd-year head coach said of Bonavita. “It’s a huge void, but we’re not trying to fill that because that would be huge mistake on our part to put that kind of pressure on anybody, so we’re trying to look at doing it differently, but certainly when you have a player of that type of talent, it’s always a big loss.”

Floeck said he believes his team’s balance and depth are its two main strengths.

“We have people who can play multiple positions,” he said. “We have quite a bit of pace, we’re a pretty quick team, but we’re young so there’s going to be some growing pains along with that but it’s nice because they don’t know what they don’t know yet so it gives us a great opportunity to teach.”

The most notable multi-faceted Panther is Boston College-bound senior Sammy Smith.

Smith, who was voted a Patriot League All-Star, first-team EMass and all-state as a defender last season, can also play up the field and play it well.

“We’re still playing around with that depending on how some other things go, but she’ll probably play a little bit of both (positions),” Floeck explained. “She’s phenomenal.”

Smith will also captain the Panthers alongside classmates — defender Olivia Johnson and goalkeeper Skylar Kuzmich.

This will be Kuzmich’s fourth year in W-H’s net.

“[We want to] get as far as we can in the tournament,” Kuzmich said. “We’re actually going to have a really good year, I can feel it. We have a lot of good freshmen coming in.”

Other than W-H’s three senior captains, most of its experience comes from its underclassmen, such as the likes of juniors Riley Bina, Zoe Cox, Anika Floeck, Delaney Hall and Samantha Perkins as well as sophomore Alexis Billings.

However, despite the youth, Kuzmich, a Hofstra University commit, still has high expectations.

“I think we’re going to do really well and get really far this year,” she said.

W-H opens the season on the road Wednesday, Sept. 5 at 5:15 p.m. against Notre Dame Academy of Hingham.

“Right now, in all honesty, and I don’t want to sound clicheish, but because we’re so young, we want to be better today than we were yesterday,” Floeck said.

Lauren Bonavita scores 100th goal — again

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Lauren Bonavita battles for the ball against Rockland on May 4. / Photo by: Sue Moss

Lauren Bonavita is the first Whitman-Hanson Regional High athlete ever to score 100 goals in two different sports.

After terrorizing opposing goalies all fall, Lauren Bonavita is doing the same this spring and has further cemented her spot in Panthers lore.

Seven months after breaking the school’s all-time record for goals scored in soccer of 103 before setting her own of 113, the Whitman-Hanson Regional High senior has added to her legacy. While it didn’t come with a soccer ball this time, it came with the help of a few.

At the 15-minute mark of the first half in the W-H girls’ lacrosse team’s game last Friday, May 25, against Silver Lake, sophomore Riley Bina lofted a pass from behind the goal that Bonavita hauled in and drilled past the goalie at the top-left corner.

The tally: the 100th of her career as she became the first W-H athlete ever to reach the century mark in goals scored in two different sports.

“It feels pretty good,” Bonavita said of the record. “I knew I was close but I didn’t know how many, but it was good to have the team behind me and be able to support me and I wouldn’t have been able to have done it without their help.”

W-H girls’ lacrosse coach Dave Rowell said Bonavita’s ability to find the net is propelled by her uncanny knack for the ball.

“She will go after it no matter what,” Rowell said.

Rowell also lauded Bonavita’s preparedness as one of her key intangibles that makes her excel.

“She relentlessly prepares for every game,” he said. “She’s physically ready, she’s mentally ready and she’s never afraid of any situation.”

For Bonavita, the 100th goal came after missing all last season to play club soccer.

“Over the summer, I played a little pass with one of my good friends, Riley Bina, and we played a lot and we would train over the summer, but other than that I didn’t really touch a stick,” Bonavita said.

As a sophomore, Bonavita found the back of the net 47 times in her first year on varsity.

“She didn’t even start for me sophomore year, she had to work her way into the starting lineup,” Rowell said. “So, to get that many goals off the bench — and she only started about half the season — that just shows she’s a remarkable athlete.”

Bonavita, who is heading to UMass Amherst to play soccer next season, said she feels her competitive edge stems from her training regimen.

“Whether it’s shooting soccer balls or coming up and playing wall ball with lacrosse or just running, I feel like my fitness level is always up to date and I’m able to make that one extra sprint that one of the other players on the other team won’t be able to do and beat them to a ground ball first,” she said.

Rowell agreed that Bonavita’s worth ethic is what makes her stand out.

“She goes from games with me where she’s playing 48 out of 50 minutes and then she goes to practice for club and she’s running sprints and she’s doing everything,” Rowell explained.

“When we do sprints, she’s right in the front of the line leading by example. Anything we do, in her mind, makes her better. I’m going to be first, I’m going to do it the best I can.”

When asked where this dual 100-goal feat ranks, Bonavita replied, “Definitely towards the top. I love playing lacrosse. I have a lot of fun doing it and with the team … It makes me happy.”

Season Review: Depth a saving grace for girls’ soccer amid injuries

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Memembers of the girls’ soccer team celebrate during an Oct. 19 game. / Photo by: Sue Moss

After wrapping up their regular season at 15-1-2, the Panthers were awarded the No. 6 seed in the Div. 1 South Sectional tournament. W-H made quick work of No. 11 Weymouth in the first round with a 6-2 victory, knocked off No. 3 Hingham, 2-1, in the quarterfinal-round, before falling to No. 2 Newton South, 2-1, in the semifinals.

If 2017 taught us anything about the Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ soccer team, it affirmed what many already knew. It’s deep and it’s brimming with talent.

The Panthers were dealt a major blow before they even embarked on the new season — they were going to be without All-American Taylor Kofton after the senior midfielder suffered a torn ACL over the summer.

Not only were the Panthers sans Kofton, but they opened the season down starting goaltender Skylar Kuzmich, who missed all of the preseason, for the first game and starting senior midfielder Katie Korzec for the first two weeks. Before Korzec even found her way back, W-H was handed another major blow when Betty Blake went down with a torn ACL against Plymouth South, ultimately ending her season.

W-H, despite the rash of injuries, opened the year at 6-0 with key wins over Silver Lake, Pembroke and Hingham. The Panthers’ 22-year head coach David Floeck said the first six games of the season taught him a great deal.

“We said we have more depth on this team than we necessarily thought we had and kids have really stepped up,” Floeck said. “Those first couple of weeks really gave us the impression this team could do something really special, especially as those other pieces came back from injuries.”

Floeck said one key to the Panthers’ success is they don’t focus on what they don’t have, rather what they do, and with every injury came an opportunity for someone else.

“In the long run, I think we’re better off [with] these experiences in a sense that we had some younger players I would tell you that I didn’t project to play as significant a role at that level until next year,” he said. “Maybe their junior year, but they had to do that earlier. So, they really grew faster this year than we expected and I think that bodes well for us moving forward.”

The Panthers’ depth continued to shine as the season wore on, and in their 10th game, a 2-0 win over Quincy, they punched their 18th consecutive ticket to the postseason.

“We’re fortunate that we have a number of good players and sometimes I think people who don’t know our team real well may focus on a couple players who get the headlines,” Floeck said. “We’re very fortunate to have a number of talented players.”

After wrapping up their regular season at 15-1-2, the Panthers were awarded the No. 6 seed in the Div. 1 South Sectional tournament. W-H made quick work of No. 11 Weymouth in the first round with a 6-2 victory, knocked off No. 3 Hingham, 2-1, in the quarterfinal-round, before falling to No. 2 Newton South, 2-1, in the semifinals.

With four minutes remaining and W-H, which lost junior defender Olivia Johnson just 15 minutes in to a broken wrist, clinging to a 1-0 lead, Panthers All-American Lauren Bonavita tore her hamstring, an injury that she played though. Regardless, shortly thereafter the Lions, on their first shot of the second half, knotted the score at 1-1 with less than a minute remaining. In overtime, Newton South won it with a header.

“It was a tough one to take, because we really felt like we played well enough to win, but sometimes the ball bounces that way,” Floeck said.

While the Panthers’ depth shone bright this season with sophomores Alexis Billings, Riley Bina, Anika Floeck, Delaney Hall and Samantha Perkins, taking significant leaps forward, the impact of their senior class was ultimately the motor that powered them forward. It was a group of girls that helped guide W-H to a 77-6-7 record and two South Sectional titles over four seasons.

“When you play an 18-game regular season and they’re winning almost 80 games in four years, that speaks to the level that they have and they’ve done it consistently,” Floeck said. “We want to maintain a level of consistency and the senior class has certainty brought that to us.”

Spearheading that senior class was Bonavita – who ends her career as the school’s all-time leading goal scorer with 113 after a 43-goal campaign.

“We’ve never had anyone who has had an offensive season like the one Lauren had,” Floeck said.

“With all the great players coming through here, her’s ranks as one of the most incredible seasons of any player.”

Floeck said that despite the Panthers falling short of their team goal of a state title, he couldn’t be more satisfied with what they were able to accomplish, and the way they went about doing it.

“They were not only great on the field, they were great off the field,” he said. “They were great ambassadors of the game of soccer and representatives of Whitman-Hanson. They played great, they got better as the year went on and I think that’s really a testimony to their hard work and their commitment to it.”

No. 300 for Floeck: W-H coach credits his staff consistency for milestone win

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Photo by: Sue Moss

David Floeck has won his 300th game at Whitman-Hanson Regional High.

After the dust settled, the final whistle was blown and the score final, Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ soccer head coach David Floeck had recorded his 300th career victory on the sidelines for the Panthers.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have great players,” Floeck said. “Year in and year out, great players come to us, and that’s a credit to the youth leagues.” 

It was a hard-fought game for the W-H on Tuesday, Oct. 18, but its 2-0 win over Plymouth North was enough to secure the milestone for Floeck.

After W-H athletic director Bob Rodgers alerted fans Floeck, who also serves as the school’s assistant principal, was on the verge of the 300 mark, more emphasis was put on W-H’s Saturday tilt versus Hingham as he sat at 299. Unfortunately for the Panthers, Floeck was turned back after a 2-1 loss, so he had to wait until Tuesday’s game.

Besides the constant infusion of talented players into the system, Floeck credits the consistency of his coaching staff as a large piece of his success. Tom Zamagni has been with Floeck since he started coaching at W-H 21 years ago, Brandon Dineen has guided the Panthers’ JV team for 13 years and Glenn Ward, who Floeck replaced in 1996, is now the head coach of the freshman team.

“When you try to implement a philosophy in the program, in terms of our core values and things that we stand for, it’s nice when we have a coaching staff that knows what we’re trying to do at all three levels,” Floeck said.

Floeck’s coaching career began in 1990, when he was hired to head the East Bridgewater boys’ soccer team, where he worked until 1995. Ironically for Floeck, he said he actually never thought about coaching girls.

“It was a difficult switch,” Floeck said. “But, I took the leap and I couldn’t be happier.”

One of the most influential figures in Floeck’s life he said was his father. Josef Floeck, born in Germany, played an instrumental role in getting his son involved in the game and also played a key role in helping establish soccer at East Bridgewater High School and was one of the founding members of the South Shore League.

“Soccer has always been a huge part of our family and it still is today,” Floeck said. “As soon as we could walk in the house, we were kicking a soccer ball.”

The girls’ soccer team will be back on the field Saturday at 6 p.m. when it hosts Weymouth.