Varsity Girl's Soccer: Hubs and Knights Find Commonplace In New Spots

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

The Middletown High School Knights Varsity Girl’s Soccer team and the North Hagerstown Hubs have both seen their fair share of ups and downs in the history of the programs over the past couple last years.

The Knights were the toast of the state from 2010-2012 as they won three straight state championships while the Hubs struggled to make any progress as the Hubs racked up losing seasons at a fervent pace.

Each team has regressed more to the mean since that 2012-2013 season as the Knights have had some success, including a starring role as playoff spoilers the past couple years while the Hubs have become a legitimate playoff contender and have put everyone on notice that they are no longer the doormat.

And, as both teams seasons start up one team hopes that they are headed on the same path while the other hopes they can perform a little bit of role reversal to get back to where they once were.

For the Knights, they are the ones hoping to restore the program back to those glory years containing names such as Caudle, Kessler, Noel, and Moore. Those teams are well cemented in the minds of Middletown fans alike as they captured a community with how they played.

Even though the Knights are very young and very raw, they still have that similar potential as those teams from the when Kessler and Caudle were around mainly because of how young they and how much potential surrounds this team.

North Hagerstown on the other hand doesn’t really have a litmus test inside their own program to base the success that they’ve had over the past two years off of. The Hubs have only made it past the regional final round of the state tournament once back in 2008 as they made it to the state semifinal that year.

Outside of that, North Hagerstown’s in uncharted waters and if it wasn’t for the 3A West region that they play in being so deep from a talent perspective and so deep in the amount of teams in it that are “state title material” than the Hubs could easily be challenging for a region title every year.

Middletown has started off their regular season with a bang as in the opener for normal play the Knights tapped into an offense that was waiting to explode and used that rush of goals to take down the Brunswick High School Railroaders, 3-0. Before that the Knights played in the Urbana Tournament in which they dropped a 3-0 contest to Broadneck before splitting with Westminster 1-1.

North Hagerstown, on the opposite side of the coin, has found their stride early and often as in three games the Hubs have dispatched of the Frederick High School Cadets 7-0 and then took down the Clear Spring High School Blazers and the South Hagerstown High School Rebels in the first two games in the Washington County Tournament.

This goes against past history as since the Hubs and Knights have started playing back in the 90’s usually when the match-up comes around on the schedule, Middletown’s winning percentage would be the higher of the two barring if it was an early season match-up.

Both teams have embraced the new positions that they find themselves in as the Knights have been energized with some of the play from their younger players including freshman Alauria Robinson who has created chance after chance for the Knights up front.

The Hubs have been led by junior goalkeeper Maddie Foltz who has stepped up for the Hubs into her dual role as the starting goalie for the Varsity Girl’s Soccer team but also the starting kicker for the Varsity Football team. Foltz has excelled in both with her play in between the pipes for the Hubs, the main reason why the Varsity Girl’s Soccer team is where they are.

Both Middletown and North Hagerstown are in different spots from where they have been in recent history but yet but yet both teams are very comfortable with where they are and are confident in the type of team they are becoming.