By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Over the last three years, the Salem Academy Girls Soccer program has emerged as a respectable Soccer program.
Over that three-year span, they’ve reached the 3A/2A/1A State Playoffs, winning their first-ever State Playoff Game three years ago and are seeing if they can make it four-straight this Fall.
“I’m just excited to see if we can continue that streak after three-years-in-a-row of making it to league playoffs and State,” said Salem Academy Head Coach Stephanie Law. “We got some returning seniors. I’m excited to see where it goes for them.”
Despite graduating eight seniors from last year’s squad, the Crusaders will return some returners from last year. Jenna Greenwood, Alysha Law, Grace Scott, Marian Mensah and Zoe Martin to name a few return this Fall to help Salem Academy try to make it four-straight trips to the State Playoffs.
For Martin, she took over the full-time Goalkeeper duties as a sophomore after Sophie Pass graduated two years ago. There were nerves off the bat, but the now-Junior adjusted quickly thanks to her teammates’ support and now is ready to step up once more this season.
“(Last year) helped a lot because I had to step into a leadership role with being goalie that I didn’t have to do before, so it helped me a lot. I’m excited coming into this year because I learned from last year on how to do it well and be strong with how I’m doing and stuff,” said Martin. “I’m really excited to see how this year goes. We got some new Freshmen coming in, so I have hope for us this year.
Salem Academy will open the season on August 27 when they host Dayton before heading to Merlin to play North Valley.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
