For the Paul VI High School girls soccer program, a new path started last year with an infusion of youth.
Seven freshmen somewhat nervously stepped onto the varsity field, squaring off against bigger and older opponents.
“It was scary,” said Camryn Koerner, who is now a sophomore. “We came in last year with seven varsity freshmen, and I think five or six started. I wouldn’t say we were uncomfortable, but … there was a shy feeling.”
About 14 months later, they went from sheepishly kicking a ball to brazenly seizing a trophy as the Eagles won the South Jersey Non-Public A championship Nov. 14 with a 1-0 win over Immaculata. It was the third sectional championship in school history and the second in the last three years.
Koerner scored the lone goal with 16:09 remaining. She actually had a pretty good feeling earlier that day that she might score the biggest goal of her life. Or at least, she hoped so.
“Definitely,” Koerner said. “That adrenaline is something. All day in school, I was like ‘I want to score today. I want to score today.’ It was on my mindset. If I have a good mindset, I can go into a game and stay locked in. And that’s what happened.”
Koerner was one of the seven freshmen to burst onto the scene last year and become a significant contributor this year. She was joined by Kylie Berk, Natalie Howe, Hunter Kintzing, Eleanor Lawyer, Lyla Quinones and goaltender Chloe Krupa.
“We were preparing for this ever since last season, when we had such a young team,” Paul VI coach Karen Anderson said. “They got used to what it was like to play at this level. We knew that if they put it together and they clicked, we would have the product that we’ve been having this season.”
Heading into the Non-Public A state championship game, Paul VI was 19-2-1, with one of those losses coming in the South Jersey Coaches Association championship to undefeated Shawnee High School. The other was an out-of-state matchup against McDonogh School of Maryland.
The Eagles have been getting contributions from all areas, and the current sophomore class has accounted for 43 of the team’s 80 goals this season, including 15 from Koerner, who is just one behind junior Emma McCarthy for the team lead.
Photo Gallery: PVI Girls Soccer Win
“She’s one of our super sophomores,” Anderson said. “She’s been our striker, and she’s come up big for us in a lot of games.”
Although the senior class is fewer in numbers, its contributions have been limitless, both on and off the field. It carries the experience of winning one of the program’s other two sectional championships in 2022. It can be tough to compare the two trophies, if you ask senior Danielle Hennessy. But she said this one is special.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Hennessy said. “From the first day of preseason, working with these girls has been such a blessing. Each one of these girls worked so hard this season, so it’s nice to get this reward.”
The other sectional championship came in 1999, when Anderson was a freshman at Paul VI High School. Back then, she was the young player contributing in big moments against bigger, older opponents. Now she watches a number of her players do it first-hand.
“It feels the same on both ends, but this means a little bit more,” Anderson said of coaching her second sectional championship. “To watch the girls and see them buy into everything I’ve given to them at the start of the season. This is the product they have now. It’s nice to see them believing.”
It’s part of a culture that handed down a winning tradition almost seamlessly.
“They’ve always been a great group of girls together,” Anderson said. “They’ve always felt like they were sisters together. They are generally happy for whoever scores. There’s not that one player who wants all the limelight. It’s the whole team.”
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