Tardie, Stewart lead Hermon girls to B North soccer title

HAMPDEN, Maine — The prolific Hermon High School tandem of juniors Madison Stewart and Natalie Tardie entered Wednesday night’s Class B North championship game against Medomak Valley of Waldoboro with 43 goals between them.
In a span of 8:50 to open the second half, it had swelled to 46.
Tardie scored a pair of goals in the first 7:24 of the half to break a scoreless tie and fed Stewart for another one 1:26 later and the 15-2 Hawks went on to post a 5-1 victory for their fourth B North title in five years.
Medomak Valley finished up at 14-3.
Tardie and Stewart added a goal apiece in the final eight minutes of the game to finalize the victory.
Tardie now has 20 goals on the season and Stewart has 28.
Hermon will play Greely High of Cumberland Center in Saturday’s 5:30 state final at Cameron Stadium in Bangor.
Tardie scored her 18th goal of the season just 36 seconds into the second half when she gathered in a perfect through ball from Brooke Gallop, stopped to survey the positioning of goalkeeper Chloe Fox and slid her 12-yard shot to Fox’s left.
“You’ve got to be patient and not rush it,” said Tardie. “I missed a couple in the first half. I kicked it at the goalie. I wanted to make sure I had the placement right.”
Tardie scored again off a pretty passing sequence.
Ella Johnson made a run down the right flank and tapped a short pass over to Stewart, who quickly fed it to Tardie, who deposited it into the net from 10 yards out.
“We play real well together,” said Tardie. “We’ve got real good chemistry. Our connection is real good. We know where each other is.”
Stewart made it 3-0 from close range off a Tardie pass.
Hard-working MV standout Scarlett Flint scored a well-deserved goal make it 3-1 before Tardie and Stewart capped the scoring.
Flint had hit the crossbar and the post earlier in the game.
Hermon attempted 35 shots to Medomak Valley’s 13.
Becca Balmas finished with six saves for Hermon and Fox had 10 for Medomak Valley.
Hermon coach M.J. Ball said during their halftime talk, he told them everything would work out “if we played our game, kept the ball on the floor, worked it from side to side, and played with a sense of urgency but not panic.
“Once that first goal came, others would come,” said Ball.
He thought their second half performance was once of the best halves they’ve played all season.
“The girls were really good. They worked really hard. We could have had more (goals),” he said.
The Panthers had just two seniors in their starting lineup and on their roster in Kytana Williamson and Haley Blake.
“We’ve got a young group and they’ve done really well,” said Medomak Valley coach Darryl Townsend. “For them to be here today and play as well as they did was okay. The girls did great.
“We’ve got a lot to learn. We don’t have a ton of players who play soccer outside of soccer season. Hermon is always a good team. When you have players who play as much soccer as they do, you’re supposed to be good.”  
The Hawks had a 13-9 edge in shot attempts in the scoreless first half and dominated the final 20 minutes but couldn’t convert their chances.
Both goalies were tested and came up with some good saves.
Fox sprinted off her line to smother Tardie’s clean break-in midway through the first half.