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Big goals for Sam Smith at Boston College

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Sam Smith controls the ball against Northeastern. / Courtesy photo

Sam Smith led the Boston College women’s soccer team in goals as a freshman.

Shortly after Boston College named Jason Lowe its next women’s soccer head coach in January, he took a trip to the South Shore to watch some of the program’s incoming players.

Sam Smith, a reigning All-American at Whitman-Hanson Regional High, was one of them.

“You could tell she was a pretty technical player, but mostly off the field, I would say one of the biggest personalities in the freshman group, so we kind of clicked right away,” Lowe said. “Really great kid and really into soccer and could tell we were going to get along really well.”

The Hanson native arrived on campus a few months later.

“She came right in and just from our initial fitness test, she’s probably one of our fittest players on the team — definitely one of our fittest freshmen, so she definitely made a good first impression in the early days of preseason,” Lowe said.

And a strong preseason helped the freshman earn a starting role on the Eagles. After netting the winning goal in the Eagles’ opener against UMass, Smith did the same in the second game as well. By BC’s fifth contest of the season, she had four goals, three of which were game-winners.

“She didn’t overthink it too much,” Lowe said. “She got the ball and was playing with her first touch, and then she just drove into the 18 and got good shots off and did a really good job keeping the ball alive and just sort of staying in the moment.”

That was just a part of her success.

“I’d do film with her, and she actually is really good at breaking down her game and watching film,” Lowe said. “When we come in to watch it, she has already watched it and broke it down herself and had her own opinions.

“Every Monday, on our free day, she is out with the other freshmen working on their game. A combination of both of those helped her get off to a good start and helped her stay in our starting lineup.”

Smith entered Atlantic Coast Conference play with five goals. Lowe said her non-conference success wasn’t a surprise to him, but he wanted to see if she could perform against ACC competition. She did.

Smith netted two goals against Florida State in the conference opener and another against Miami (FL) the following game.

“That surprised me when she was able to do it against some of the top 10 teams in the country,” he said. “Her header against Florida State was probably one of the most perfect goals we scored all year.”

But that’s where the goal scoring would end for Smith because, with each goal, she started to become even more of a focal point of the opposing team’s defense — to the point where teams double-teamed her.

“There’s no secrets in our conference,” Lowe said. “They watched the film and figured out. She is certainly no secret.”

But despite not scoring again, she still led the team with eight goals this season.

“It was definitely frustrating to hear the other team always say, ‘Double team No. 9,’” Smith said. “It can get to you. See, I don’t think eight goals is a lot, I want to score more.”

Additionally, Smith earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman team and was tabbed to the 2019 United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Women’s All-Atlantic Region third team.

For as big as the goals Smith has garnered at BC were, bigger ones await.

“The sky’s the limit for her,” Lowe said. “I was talking with the U-20 [U.S. women’s national team] coach, and I think she is definitely on their radar in a really good pool of forwards and attackers.”

“That’s always been my goal,” Smith said.

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 David 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 as a freshman — 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 David 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.