CUMBERLAND — The Mountain Ridge Miners, who set school and area records during a perfect regular season, were voted Cumberland Times-News Area champions by a unanimous vote.
The area title is the first for the Mountain Ridge girls, and gives the Frostburg school a sweep of the area soccer titles as the Mountain Ridge boys were also unanimous area champs.
The Area championship trophies, which will be presented to the Miners girls and boys teams, are sponsored by J-R’s Custom Screen Printing and Embroidery of Frostburg.
The only other school to win boys and girls area titles in the same season was Bishop Walsh, in 1999.
Coach Martha Mauzy’s Miners had a perfect regular season — the first in area history for a girls team — at 14-0-0, and won the Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference with a 7-0 record. They finished 15-1 after being upset by Smithsburg, 2-1, in the region semifinals.
“We just had a fantastic group of kids. They were good student and athletes,’’ said Mauzy. “Each one had an understanding of her role and was willing to do whatever was necessary for the team to win.
“They set goals and were not willing to compromise on those goals. All 22 girls worked extremely hard and deserve the season they had.
“And the assistant coaches deserve a lot of credit, too. John Pratt and George Bishields with the varsity, and Steve Amann and Jay Walbert with the jayvee team, which was undefeated, too. When you have people like that helping it makes my job easy.”
The Miners’ season was one for the recordbook, as they set both school and area records that may stand for years to come.
The 15 wins is a school record, but two shy of the area mark set by Bishop Walsh, which went 17-1 in 2002.
Mountain Ridge’s 15-game winning streak is a single-season area record, snapping the previous mark of 14, set by the 2002 BW team.
The Mountain Ridge defense set several area records, including: goals allowed (4) and goals per game (0.25), shutouts (13), and longest scoreless streak (897 minutes, 48 seconds).
Goalkeeper Heather Shipe led the area in save percentage at .943 (67 saves, 4 goals allowed) and shutouts (9 1/2). Taylor Cutter had 3 1/2 shutouts.
The offense wasn’t too shabby, either, as the Miners scored 69 goals, an average of more than four per game. Fourteen players had a goal or an assist.
Sophomore Stephanie Fazenbaker led the way and was second in the area with 25 goals, 5 assists and a 3.43 scoring average.
Area player of the year Danielle McGinnis was ninth with 10 goals, 5 assists and a 1.56 mark, Corrie Ferree was 13th with 6 goals, 6 assists and a 1.12 average, and Ashleigh Colmer was 14th with 8 goals, 1 assist and a 1.06 average.
Kristin Knotts (2 goals, 5 assists), Janelle Walbert (3 goals, 3 assists), Nicole Nightengale (3 goals, 2 assists) and defensive player of the year Quincy Hegeman (2 goals, 4 assists) were also among the area’s top 30 scorers.
The area championship is the first for Mountain Ridge, but third for Mauzy, who has a 102-29-7 record in nine seasons as a head coach. The others were with Beall, outright in 2003 and as co-champion with Northern in 2006.
Mike Mathews is a Cumberland Times-News sportswriter. He can be reached at mmathews@times-news.com.
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