Last fall, the Northbridge girls soccer team went 14-2-2 during the regular season, finding their way into the Division 4 State Tournament. After grabbing a win in the first round, the Rams lost to Lunenburg in the Round of 16 on penalty kicks, leaving Coach Kristin Strazzulla irritated with the way her team was bounced from the playoffs.

“I really hate penalty kicks and losing this way makes me mad,” the Northbridge Coach said. “I thought that we could have at least gone another round, if not more, but we ran into a good team and got unlucky.”

Coming into the new season, the Rams will be without 10 seniors who graduated, many of whom went on to play at the collegiate level. Having lost as much talent as Northbridge did, one would place the team in a rebuilding process, but the players don’t agree.

Strazzulla herself hates the phrase rebuilding year to begin with, and her players hate classifying the upcoming season as a rebuilding year. In fact, the Rams told their Coach that they were not rebuilding, as they had already been built and they are just continuing on their journey.

“They are so right, Strazzulla said. “This year we will have 12 juniors on our varsity team, with 7 or 8 of them having started or played significant time for us last year. Being a coach at the youth level, a lot of these girls have already played for me and give us depth here on the high school level.”

Basically, this year’s squad will be a talented group of athletes who have been playing together in Northbridge soccer in some capacity for many years. This year that group of girls is hoping to see the fruits of their labors materialize.

Lilly Proto will be the only senior to return to the team this fall, and the Coach will be leaning on her heavily to help get this team moving in the right direction. The senior played midfield last year, but Strazzulla, who believes the team will be sporting a different look this fall, may be moving her to attack midfield. Having scored 7 goals for the Rams last year, the coach hopes she can increase her scoring into double digits and give the offense a chance to be successful. 

Another key attribute that Strazzulla will be looking toward will be junior keeper Audrey Siemaszko, who patrolled the goal on a regular basis last year.

“Having a year of experience under her belt will be big this year,” the coach said. “During the tournament last year she made two really big saves on penalty kicks and I expect her to pick things up and use that experience to bring leadership to this team.”

In addition to the two above-mentioned players, Northbridge will be bringing a culture to the field each time they step onto the pitch. One ingredient to the Northbridge culture will be new junior varsity coach Karlee Battista, a Ram alum who played on the 2022 Northbridge State Finalist team that lost to Cohasset in the Championship game.

“Karlee was a captain for us that season, and she is bringing that attitude full circle,” the Ram Coach said. “Having just graduated from college, she is waiting for the next step in her career and has decided to help us until then; hopefully it’s not too soon, though.. She brings a love for the game and her town and comes from a soccer family (her brother played and her father coached the boys team up until recently) and will be the key to connecting the bridge.”

Having a junior varsity program puts Strazzulla in a good position to groom those athletes to eventually play for her at the varsity level. According to the coach, many local schools don’t have the luxury of a JV squad, which is important to a program’s future success. Strazzulla wants to make sure that the team not only has fun but is challenged.

With this year’s school session beginning earlier than in the past, the soccer team has only had a handful of practices at the time of this writing, with their first scrimmage coming soon. Upon entering this season, Northbridge will find their schedule much harder than in the past, with the Rams taking on more Division 1 programs.

Strazzulla is hoping to maintain that 1-0 mentality each game, taking it one game at a time.

“We are not going to go 16-0; we need to go out and play that one game in front of us while not getting ahead of ourselves,” the Coach said. “We will be competitive, although this year we will not have that high-powered scorer.”

Not having that one individual that Strazzulla can count on game in and game out to put the ball in the back of the opposition’s net will be a transition for Northbridge this fall. The Rams will have to adopt that team-effort style of play to be successful. Although the team will not have one player they can look to for scoring, they may not need it every single game due to their stifling defensive play.

Northbridge will open the season on Labor Day, September 7, against the same team that knocked them out of the playoffs – Lunenburg.