All of a sudden the reality snuck up on Erika Stupinski.

While celebrating her team’s state championship win this fall, she realized her soccer career was over.

“It definitely will be hard to give up soccer,” said the Mt. Ararat playmaker. “I think it hit me probably the worst at our banquet. I was trying to talk in front of everyone, and I couldn’t talk. I lost it. It was definitely hitting me then. I will definitely miss the sport and will definitely miss it because of the team that we had.”

Stupinski will attend Stonehill College next year with a basketball scholarship. So this season was her last go-around on the soccer field. She certainly made it count. She scored a school-record 47 goals and led the Eagles to a second state title in three years.

For the third straight season, Stupinski has been named the Lewiston Sun Journal Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year.

Other players considered included Hampden’s Kim Stephenson, NYA’s Bobbi Dennison and Lee’s Shelby Pickering.

Stupinski had been a key ingredient to Mt. Ararat’s run at a championship last season. The Eagles won the state title in Stupinski’s sophomore year but last year had a revamped lineup. Still, Mt. Ararat reached the regional final before losing.

This year, the Eagles were determined to take that extra step.

“We had 10 seniors this year,” said Stupinski. “It was kind of the same thing we had my

sophomore year. I think my sophomore year we had nine seniors. We had a lot of skill and we knew that. The whole time we really wanted to put everything together. At the beginning of the season, it was rocky, but we started cooking right at the beginning of the playoffs. We had a lot of faith in each other.”

During the playoffs, she set up Kyla Woodhouse’s game-winner in the 1-0 state win over Greely. She had a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over Bangor in the regional final. She assisted on all four goals in a 4-1 semifinal victory, and scored four times in a 5-0 win over Hampden in the quarterfinals.

Stupinski finished with 19 assists this year. She was the Maine Soccer Coaches Class A Player of the Year and was their All-New England and All-American selections.

This was the third time shew was named an All-New England player, and she finished with a school mark of 110 goals and 48 assists.

She’s been a driving force

for the Eagles. She was a critical presence on the team last year as the team rebuilt. Though Mt. Ararat had an abundance of seniors this year, most of the starters were underclassmen.

“It definitely was a continuation of the year before,” Stupinski said of her leadership role. “They were young, but they were really hungry. That’s the best thing to have when you can take them under your wing, and they want to win. They were competitive just like some of us were. So it definitely worked out.”

Right now, Stupinski is leading a promising Mt. Ararat basketball team that should challenge in the Eastern A playoffs. She is one of the best basketball talents in the state, earning a full scholarship to Stonehill.

“It’s not too big, but it’s not too small,” she said of Stonehill where she’ll study business. “They have a very competitive basketball team.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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