Four Wolves named to Capital League all-star squad

The four players helped a young Wolves squad bounce back from a rough start to the season to make the Division 3 playoffs, where the team fell to eventual state runner-up Vergennes in the opening round.

The Capital League all-star teams are selected by a vote of the coaches in the league.

Osborne, one of only three seniors on the team, played her final season as one of the Wolves’ primary central defenders, despite that not being where she played in her first few years on the squad.

“It’s not necessarily where we wanted her, but it’s where we needed her,” PA coach Jim Eisenhardt said. Peoples lost several starting defenders to graduation after last season, and early-season injuries to other players meant players were shifting to new positions all over the field.

“She had the most experience, and she did a good job for us back there,” Eisenhardt said. He credits Osborne for much of the Wolves’ development on defense over the course of the year, as the team started out giving up lots of goals early in the year but had settled in and become a stingy defensive unit by year’s end.

“We became much harder to score on later in the season, and I attribute a lot of that to Linden,” he said. Osborne also took all of PA’s corner kicks on the season, and after yet another injury she started taking all the team’s free kicks too, finishing the year with a handful of assists.

Osborne’s partner as a central defender was Nigro, a freshman in her first season on varsity.

“She just has a really good soccer sense, she’s one of our most clever players even as a freshman,” Eisenhardt said. “She did a great job in the back.”

Nigro was one of eight freshman playing varsity for Peoples this season, so she and her classmates were learning on the go as Peoples opened its season against some of the heavyweights of Division 2, like Harwood, Montpelier and U-32.

Those high stakes weren’t too much for Nigro, though.

“Lucy was not overmatched as a freshman,” Eisenhardt said, adding he expects big things from her next season.

For the season, the freshman also added an assist after moving up to get more involved in the offense, particularly on dead-ball plays.

Carlson was the only junior on the team this season, and she locked down the key central midfielder position for the Wolves.

“She’s just a real presence, her size and athletic ability creates havoc for other teams,” Eisenhardt said. Ideally he would have had Carlson playing up top on offense, as more of a scoring threat, but the team needed her to help control the midfield.

“It doesn’t matter who you have up there, you have to get them the ball first,” Eisenhardt said, and Carlson did a great job of that once she moved back to central middy after the first few games. She finally did get on the scoreboard in the final game of the season, scoring the game-deciding goal against Twinfield.

Wells, a sophomore who was one of the team’s top scorers last year, did a little bit of everything for PA this season.

“Such an athlete,” Eisenhardt said. She typically played as a wing during her freshman season, but moved to attacking midfielder to start this year after more injuries, then pulled a stint in goal for three games after starting keeper Josie Simone went down with an injury.

“We definitely needed Shelby in the field. It was almost a shame to put her in goal, but she’s such an outstanding athlete,” that the decision worked out, Eisenhardt said. Wells’ work as the team’s goalie kept them in games against Montpelier and Harwood; she particularly shined against Montpelier, a game PA only lost in the final 30 seconds.

Once Simone returned, Wells moved back out on the field for PA’s rivalry game against Stowe, a contest the Wolves won to get their first victory of the season.

For the season, Wells finished with three goals and a handful of assists.

“Her effort is just amazing, her work rate is amazing, her athletic ability is amazing. At times she was able to control games,” Eisenhardt said.

Other local athletes to make the Capital League all-star squads included Lamoille Union’s Maddy Benoit, Barrett Freeman, Haven Hickman, Emily Hutchins, Grace Kirk and Hannah LaRock as well as Stowe’s Lucy Genung, Malinn Sigler and Anika Wagner.

Harwood’s Tanum Nelson and U-32’s Caroline Kirby were named the Capital League Co-Players of the Year and Harwood’s Mike Vasseur was named Coach of the Year.