High School Soccer: Reed, Bourque adding to family legacies at Sunapee
· Yahoo Sports
Two big trees in Addie Reed’s backyard are connected by a soccer net that her dad, Jon, put up.
It was a tradition to play a family pickup game together after dinner, Reed said.
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Maya Bourque has fond memories of going to the soccer field with her dad, Steve, and older sister, Sophie, to get some practice in.
“Sophie would be able to practice her crosses and whatnot and my dad would practice easy control of the ball and traps with me,” Bourque said.
Bourque and Reed’s last names are prominent within the Sunapee High School soccer programs. The lifelong friends and senior center backs for the Lakers girls team are adding to their family legacies.
Bourque’s dad is the girls junior varsity coach. She played one season with Sophie, a four-year varsity midfielder who graduated in 2024.
Reed’s older brother Parker, who graduated in 2020, helped the Sunapee boys capture two NHIAA Division IV titles (2018, 2020). Her older sister, Melanie, played for the Sunapee girls before graduating in 2023. Her dad played and coached soccer at Sunapee.
“I avoided it (soccer) until Maya convinced me to (play) and it was so much fun and my siblings were very supportive,” said Reed, who started playing soccer in sixth grade. “I know the game very well from just being dragged along to their games.”
Bourque, who captains the Lakers alongside senior forward Kaitlyn Andersen, said her older sister inspired her to dedicate herself to the sport.
“How I now drive myself is really what she taught me — just repetition of plays ... and really my work ethic for the sport, I learned from her,” Bourque said.
Second-year Sunapee coach Rob Grabill described Bourque and Reed as the team’s insurance policy in the back.
The two work alongside senior outside backs Ali Norris and Kyrah Olivier.
The Lakers, who reached the D-IV quarterfinals last year, have two shutout wins and allowed three goals over their 3-1 start.
“They are leaders on and off the field,” Grabill said.
Reed and Bourque constantly communicate with their fellow backs and junior goalkeeper Avery Miller during games. Bourque directs traffic so much that she’s been called the mother hen of the back line.
From their positions, Bourque and Reed see the entire field and relay that information to their teammates.
Bourque and Reed don’t communicate much with each other, though. They don’t need to.
“We’ve known each other since we were born — she (Bourque) likes to joke that she’s a month and three days older than me,” said Reed, who will have her older sister in attendance on Friday when the Lakers host undefeated Newmarket (4-0). “Sometimes, we don’t even talk. We’ll just say, ‘Yeah,’ and we know exactly what to do, how to support each other.”
Reed is the more aggressive back of the two, taking on the ball carrier while Bourque stays behind to protect Miller and the Lakers’ net.
Bourque is speedy. She won one race and finished among the top three in a few team races during Tuesday’s practice. Bourque has also developed into a strong distributor over her time in the program — a far cry, she said, from her “boom ball” days of clearing the ball up field and hoping for the best.
Both instinctively know how to cover their fellow backs. It’s like muscle memory for them, Norris said.
Grabill said Reed and Bourque’s soccer-family backgrounds are apparent, and each brings a “full portfolio” to the team.
“Playing with them is, I would say, very uplifting,” Norris said. “They have your back both on the field and off the field.”
Motivated Esposito producing for South boys
Michele Esposito is out for more than an honorable mention this season.
The Nashua South senior midfielder initially didn’t want his certificate for being named an All-Division I honorable mention by the state’s soccer coaches last fall, coach Tom Bellen said.
Esposito scored 15 goals last year and his first two this year were memorable ones.
After Bishop Guertin goalkeeper James Algeo came out to challenge him last Tuesday, Esposito dribbled around Algeo, did a 180-degree spin and fired a goal inside the far post to pull the Purple Panthers even at 1-1.
Esposito capped the game’s scoring with a chip shot over BG’s second-half goalie Henry Vaillancourt.
He followed up with a hat trick in South’s 7-1 win at Windham last Thursday.
“He got robbed last year,” Bellen said after the BG game. “He should’ve been a second-teamer, at least and I think he’s fired up about that.”
Stevens girls giving back to alumni association
The Stevens High School Alumni Association played a vital role in the school’s sports teams having their seasons last year. Facing a $5 million deficit, the Claremont School District defunded extracurricular activities at Stevens and Claremont Middle School last school year.
The Stevens girls soccer team will show its appreciation to the association next Tuesday night (7) in Claremont during its annual Charity Cup game with rival Fall Mountain Regional.
Each year, the host team chooses a charity for the game to benefit, and Stevens chose the alumni association.
When the Cardinals hosted the Charity Cup in 2024, the game raised more than $1,300 for Shriners Hospitals for Children.
The Cardinals and Fall Mountain last met in the Division III quarterfinals last fall — a 3-0 Stevens win before capping an undefeated season with the D-III title.
Individual highlights
Andersen, the Sunapee girls’ senior co-captain, collected her second hat trick of the season in the Lakers’ 3-0 triumph at Mascoma Valley on Wednesday. She has seven goals and three assists.
Windham senior Noah Bustamante scored four goals and assisted on another in the Jaguars’ Division I win over Alvirne on Tuesday.
Nolan Weymouth scored his first varsity goal for the Hopkinton boys in their 3-1 Division III loss at Stevens on Wednesday.
Top 10s
(Through Wednesday’s games)
Boys
1. Nashua South
2. Bedford
3. Hanover
4. Bishop Guertin
5. Londonderry
6. Merrimack
7. Exeter
8. Pinkerton
9. Campbell
10. ConVal
Girls
1. Exeter
2. Bedford
3. Winnacunnet
4. Pinkerton
5. Windham
6. Goffstown
7. Hanover
8. Bishop Guertin
9. Bow
10. Milford