St. Anthony's girls soccer restored order with state championship

Winning a state championship every year seems like an unrealistic expectation, but for current student-athletes in the St. Anthony’s girls soccer program or those who followed the team over recent years, it’s the only result they’ve known.

Until last year.

St. Anthony’s lost to Sacred Heart, 2-0, in the 2023 girls soccer NSCHSAA final and the loss halted the Friars’ quest for a sixth straight state championship. It was also the only two goals the Friars allowed all year, ending the season on a result no one on the team saw coming.

Since then, the loss to Sacred Heart was seemingly the only game everybody wanted to talk about. And frankly, the Friars were tired of hearing about it.

“Being the first team to lose [the title] in six years was an awful feeling, but we knew we were good enough to bounce back,” said senior goalkeeper Juliana Mosca. “Even just being on a team where everyone can only focus on that one loss shows how good people know we are. We knew we were capable of coming back and getting the championship back.”

That’s exactly what St. Anthony’s did.

The Friars won their sixth state title in the last seven years with a 3-0 victory over St. Mary’s (Lancaster) in the state CHSAA final at St. John’s University. The Friars won the league final, state semifinal and state final by a combined score of 14-0 and finished the season with a 17-1-1 record.

“Last year our coaches would always say we didn’t know what the [losing] feeling was and then when we did, it was too late,” senior forward Avrie Nelsen said. “It was the last game so there was no coming back from that. So going into this year, I think that helped us realize we don’t want to feel that again.”

A walk through the halls of St. Anthony’s High School replicates an athletic Hall of Fame with a bevy of championship plaques on the wall. The girls soccer team is as well represented as any program in the school.

“We’re a school with a lot of championships,” Mosca said. “There’s a plaque on every hallway but girls soccer, we have a ton. Everyone knows we are a winning team, so we like to keep it that way.”

Coach Scott Carey said last year’s finish had the team focused from the opening practice.

“The girls kept saying from Day One, ‘That’s not going to be us. We’re going to get what we want and what we deserve,' " Carey said. "Now, everyone takes that with a grain of salt because who deserves what? But I think for us to have that hunger and desire to compete helped.”

The Friars wanted to win both for themselves and for the legacy and standard of the program.

“We all want to keep it going,” Mosca said. “You never want that to die out and the fact that it hit a dip last year wasn’t good. I’m sure girls who were on the team in the past weren’t thrilled about it, so we’re just happy we got it back.”