Newburyport girls aim for next soccer title

Newburyport soccer players (from left) Taylor Bresnahan, Laura Muise, and Jillian Kinter at a recent practice. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

The Newburyport High School girls' soccer team was nearly unstoppable last fall. Twenty-one wins in 23 tries. Fourteen shutouts. Aside from one week in October in which the Clippers lost once and tied once, Newburyport went full steam to its first Division 3 state title.

This fall? With a 4-0 record through this past Tuesday, nothing has changed. The team is so potent it could come with a government warning for its foes.

Symptoms: Sweating, shortness of breath, confusion, and dizziness. Morale destroyed. Hopes for a league title crushed.

Cure: Unknown.

Can Newburyport be clipped?

"No. Nobody has yet," says Newburyport coach Robb Gonnam.

Here's how it looks: Three potent strikers weave all over the field, setting up two-on-ones on their way to the net. A center midfielder, cool and cerebral, distributes the ball while two other midfielders retrieve and set up again. A flat backfield is a roving wall that keeps anything from reaching the net. Up to eight speedy, savvy attackers eat up the front third of the field, allowing the team to control the ball for most of the game. It's the style that gave the 2007 Clippers 12 wins by four goals or more.

"Nobody wants to watch a 0-0 game," said Gonnam. "That's half the reason soccer isn't as popular in the US. People want to see home runs, they want to see touchdowns, they want to see goals. And kids want to score goals."

Of course, the Clippers wouldn't have scored 99 times last year had they lacked such talent up front. Twenty-seven goals came from Jillian Kinter, the reigning Cape Ann League Player of the Year. Entering her senior season, her 107 points are second all-time to Kristin Mahoney (152) in Clippers history.

Kinter always seems to find a way to break single and double coverage. "[She] will still find a way to get the ball through. That's the ultimate satisfaction," said Gonnam.

Kinter, who has led the team in either points or goals in all three of her varsity seasons, always seems two moves ahead of the defense. But two of her teammates are on her wavelength.

Midfielders Laura Muise (96 points to begin 2008) and Taylor Bresnahan (90) are 3d and 5th, respectively, in the Clippers' all-time scoring. They've fed off one another's talents since they started playing travel soccer when they were 12.

"I always feel confident making a run because I know Laura will see it, all those girls in the middle will see that run, and hopefully if it's open. . . that's how I get my goals," said Kinter, who hopes to play at Colgate next year.

Bresnahan and Kinter began playing soccer together when they were 6. Second cousins, they finish each other's sentences in addition to passes. "I know I can make a run, and they'll see it," Bresnahan said. "I always know where she's going to make a run because we've been playing together for so long. You just . . ."

". . . kinda learn," said Kinter.

In addition to Newburyport, Gonnam coaches four club teams. He estimates he's coached more than 10,000 kids in his 30 years.

Several of his players have gone onto coaching, including Kristen Fern. She played for the Clippers 15 years ago and recently called Gonnam for advice on starting a program at her middle school. "It's things like that that really make it fulfilling," said Gonnam.

His resume might land him a college coaching position, but Gonnam enjoys this level for the responsibility of shaping young players into young adults.

"I like my job," he said. "By the time you're in college, you have less impact on them as a coach. It's a different mindset.

"I get more quality time with them than most parents do. That's a huge responsibility and something that I don't particularly take lightly."

Gonnam has placed more than 250 players onto NCAA teams, and he says all 23 of his current Clippers could make it "if they chose to." A key player from last year, Maggie Mahoney, graduated, but this group has dominated since they were in middle school, said Gonnam.

Now that they're seniors, these Clippers, he says, "are among the top two or three high school teams that I've coached. This is an exceptional team."

And since no one's found a way to best them, that means everyone's trying. Beating the Clippers, says Gonnam, "will make a team's season."

"Last year we had a target on our backs, and this year it's even more," said Gonnam. "You have no easy games. Everybody hates you, and they want everyone else to beat you. Every team plays us as if it's the World Cup final."

"We knew we had to work twice as hard We know every team is going to be gunning for us," said Breshnahan.

Triton coach Dan Boyle, after a season-opening loss to the Clippers, admitted they had been his team's obsession for months.

"The good thing about playing Newburyport first is that I get to spend the whole preseason preparing to play Newburyport," he said.