Photos by Jill Lobdell
Megan Bacon (6) and Taylor Dwyer (10) are the remaining two players from the original Lady Jaguars varsity soccer team in 2013. The duo has seen the rise of the program through early struggles, major upsets and now, a Northern Soccer League Division III championship. The Jags will face Elizabethtown-Lewis/Westport Thursday, Oct. 19, at Camp Dudley in Westport with a 3 p.m. kickoff.
NORTH CREEK | For the past five years, Megan Bacon and Taylor Dwyer would sometimes look up to the walls of the Johnsburg Central School gymnasium.
Sometimes they would be prompted to do so by Megan’s brother or Taylor’s dad, showing them the mark they had set on the school when looking at the championship banners.
The two would then look over to a corner of the gym, where the girls soccer banner was hung, empty.
“I’ve wanted to put my mark on that banner,” Dwyer said. “I’ve wanted to put a year on that banner so when I come back, I can say, there’s my mark.”
On Oct. 13, at the end of the fifth regular season of Lady Jaguars varsity soccer, Dwyer and Bacon, the lone remaining players from the first varsity soccer team in 2013, did just that as Johnsburg clinched it’s first Northern Soccer League Division II title.
“It’s amazing,” Bacon said. “This is something we were able to do to help get Johnsburg on the map in Section VII.”
MOVE TO SOCCER
Dwyer and Bacon both played soccer growing up in a school district which hosted a varsity field hockey program competing in Section II.
“Coach (Casey) Tomb approached us about the school having a girls soccer team and I was excited to see where we could go with it,” Dwyer said.
“I was definitely excited after playing so many years in youth soccer with the boys,” Bacon said. “Switching over was a process that was difficult and stressful.”
After playing their seventh grade year for the modified team, the two were called up as members of the first-year varsity program which played as a club team throughout Section II and VII.
“I don’t think we realized we were a club team or whatever, we just wanted to play soccer,” Dwyer said.
“It was important to be on that first team because we were actually the more experienced players and we became leaders to the older girls,” Bacon said. “We were the ones who knew the sport and were teaching it to the new players who were coming off field hockey.”
The team was also working with a new coach to the sport in Cindy Homer.
“They are both really hard workers in the classroom and on the field,” Homer said. “They have so much heart and they really play for the team first. They really are going to be missed.”
“She really helped to develop the aspects of team and family with us, and I believe that is why we have always worked well together,” Dwyer said.
“She held us together and took a leadership role,” Bacon said. “She looked up everything she could to help us succeed.”
SUCCESS
After a season as a club team and a year as a member of Section VII’ s soccer conference, the Jaguars entered the 2015 sectionals with an exclamation point. After scoring a 1-0 win over Willsboro in the preliminary round, the Lady Jags ousted third seed Crown Point, playing the game with only 10 field players to Crown Point’s standard 11.
“It was intense and crazy to face such a strong team, playing with only 10 players,” Dwyer said. “Here we were with no experience when it came to the playoffs, but we were determined to push forward.”
“It was a really cool moment and important for our team going forward showing us what we could do,” Bacon said.
The Jags 2015 season ended in the next round with a loss to eventual champion Chazy, and 2016 found the Jaguars making smaller strides forward, entering the sectional tournament as a fourth seed before falling to fifth seed Elizabethtown-Lewis Westport on a day where all higher seed teams were eliminated.
“We knew we still had the potential to play better,” Dwyer said. “I was not sure how this year would go because I think everyone expected last year was going to be the big one for our team.”
“It became different because now we are still leaders, but playing with a group of kids who have been able to come through a modified program and know the game,” Bacon said. “I think it’s given us a feeling of trust between everyone now.”
This year also saw a change in coaching, as Homer stepped down to take on a new job and Andy Snide replaced her on the bench.
“I didn’t know what to expect but coach Snide has been a great help and will work with us to improve our games,” Bacon said.
“With his knowledge and the experience of the modified players, I think it is less stressful on me a Megan and we can focus more on the game since these girls have come up through the soccer program,” Dwyer said.
“They are a great combination of hard-working athletes,” Snide said. “Having them as a duo gives us something most teams do not have and they work well with the rest of the team. It is going to be really special for their leadership and determination to be awarded with this division championship, because they have been the players who got us there.”
With that, the Lady Jaguars finished the season 13-2-0 overall with a 13-1-0 record in division play.
However, after having their best season in program history, the Jaguars were ranked fifth among Class D teams and will take to the road, heading to Camp Dudley in Westport to face the Lady Griffins for the second year in a row Thursday, Oct. 19, at 3 p.m.
“If we continue to play the way we have been, we will do well in sectionals,” Bacon said.
“We will take it game-by-game and keep working hard,” added Dwyer. “We’ll see where that takes us.”
