By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

Above, Morgan Vogt, who scored twice, makes a move toward goal in John Stark’s 4-0 win over Merrimack Valley on Sept. 27. Below, Josi Heer, who also scored, slides in for a tackle. (Goffstown News/Matt Stout)

When head coach Heather Doucette looks back at the 2006 season a month or a year or 10 years from now, despite all the wins to date, it may be a loss that stands as the defining moment for her John Stark girls soccer team.

In a 2-1 setback to Lebanon on Sept. 15, the Generals connected on just one of 40-plus shots. Their star goalkeeper/midfielder, senior Josi Heer, jammed her shoulder, an injury the team trainer expected to keep her out of net for weeks.

Concerned, Doucette needed her seniors to do something they hadn’t done, or been asked to do, in years past: Take charge.

They did.

Since that loss, the team’s eight seniors have led John Stark to five straight wins and an 8-1-2 mark, good for third place in Class I with five regular-season games to play.

The shots are still coming ­ 44 in a 1-0 win over Stevens on Saturday, Sept. 30 ­ but so are the goals. John Stark has outscored its opponents 17-1 since the Lebanon loss, with Heer and seniors Kaylin Bull, Nicole Duquette and Meg Sawyer, among others, leading the charge.

The confidence, of course, has returned to meet the season’s already high expectations. When Doucette talked with her seniors in June, she asked them what they wanted. Always contenders but never winners in the playoffs, they said they wanted to reach the second round for the first time in their careers. They also wanted a championship.

With the team in line for a home postseason game for the first time since 2003, that’s a very real possibility.

“We focus from game to game, but we never lose that vision of getting past that first round,” said Heer, who has scored in four of the past five games and plans to return to net before the end of the regular season. “And our team wants to go all the way ­ to the championship.”

In her first three seasons, Heer listened to Doucette continually tell the team that it may not be the most talented squad, but it would outwork opponents. But Heer said Doucette’s message changed this year.

With their coach telling them how skilled they are and the seniors fulfilling expectations Heer said they assumed as freshmen, the team has gelled.

Senior backs Liz Marshall, Anna Gauthier and Jess Whitmore lead the defense in front of sophomore keeper Brittany Purington, who has posted four shutouts since Heer went down.

Up front, freshman Lauren Maklin and Alyssa Charest and sophomore Joan Hamel have also injected variety into the John Stark offense.

Even with Hamel out in a 4-0 win over Merrimack Valley on Wednesday, Sept. 27, others stepped up, including Morgan Vogt, who scored twice.

As a result, the attack has kept opposing keepers busy. A year after it averaged 10 to 15 shots a game and far less against Class I’s top teams, John Stark has already exceeded 25 shots at least five times this season.

“We just could not score,” Bull said of past seasons. “But something just clicked, and it goes beyond the field. And when everything is clicking on and off the field, it just works.”