PROVIDENCE — The eighth time was the charm for the Tiverton Tigers. After seven fruitless trips to the final of the MetLife Soccer Classic Girls Division III Championship, Tiverton finally took home the title.

The Tigers overwhelmed Burrillville, 5-2, under the lights at Rhode Island College Sunday, avenging a 4-2 loss to the Broncos on Oct. 2 and ending a run of frustration that began in 1989 with a 2-0 loss to West Warwick in the D-III final. Tiverton finished with a record of 18-1.

“This was so important. We never won a championship. It’s great feeling for us. It’s so much better than I imagined,” said Tori Pierce, one of 13 Tigers seniors, a captain and the tournament’s most valuable player. She had two assists.

“Amazing. It feels amazing,” added classmate Lauren Benevides, who scored two goals.

Coach Christy Messenger, who has been with the program almost from the beginning, praised this team for having “a lot of heart” and being “very determined.” They learned a lesson last year when they were overconfident for the final and lost to St. Raphael. “We were 16-0 and had our noses in the air,” she said.

This year, after the loss at Burrillville, “we came in here, and we had to beat them,” she said.

Burrillville finished 14-4-1 and advanced to the championship game for the fifth time, its first since 1997.

Tiverton, which scored 77 goals in the regular season and 10 in two playoff games, dominated the first 30 minutes of the game and scored three goals in 5 minutes and 4 seconds. Striker Rachel Lynch got the first goal at 9:18 after a strong flip throw from the left side by Pierce. Sophomore Victoria Fryzel made it 2-0 when she squeezed through the defense and beat Taylor Maurath with a short shot at 12:26. Junior Megan Raposa used some fancy footwork to dodge defenders and scored Tiverton’s third goal from about 10 yards out at 14:22.

Tiverton pressured Maurath from the start. She robbed Pierce with a diving save in the third minute and frustrated her again in the seventh minute when she got her left arm on a strong shot that was heading to the back of the net.

The three first-half goals were more than Tiverton scored in any of its previous seven finals, the five two more than the Tigers scored in all seven finals.

Kasey Hereth put Burrillville on the board at 30:57 when her shot from about 30 yards bounced once and skipped off the hands of keeper Erin Goulart. Messenger replaced Goulart with sophomore Ashlyn Cleary. The two had alternated all season.

Benevides put the Tigers ahead 4-1 at 44:47 when she knocked in the rebound of a shot from the right by Samantha William. She scored again at 62:17 on a scramble in front after receiving a pass from Pierce.

The Broncos played hard until the end. Hereth slipped a shot beneath the diving Cleary at 79:59.

More Stories...