By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

From left, West’s Mary Kitsis, Taylor Finley and Kate Shaughnessy react to a Concord free-kick situation in the Blue Knights’ 2-0 first-round win over the Crimson Tide on Wednesday, Oct. 25. West lost in the quarterfinals, 2-1, to Pinkerton Academy on Sunday, Oct. 29. (Bedford Bulletin/Matt Stout)

Michelle Winning admits this wasn’t the Manchester West girls soccer team of old.

The squad’s first-year coach, a former Blue Knight herself, said West didn’t have the pure scorers it’s had in the past, nor were her players used to the “transition” period any team faces when a program changes hands.

As a result, fifth-seeded West’s run of consecutive state titles ended at two on Sunday, Oct. 29, with a 2-1 loss in the Class L quarterfinals to No. 4 Pinkerton Academy on a windy day in Derry.

Down 2-0 after a pair of first-half Pinkerton scores, the offensive problems West struggled with all year surfaced again. Despite playing with the wind at their backs, the Blue Knights managed just one score on Dani Ithier’s punch in off a Taylor Finley pass midway through the second frame.

“Goals came so sparingly, it was just scrappy goals and set pieces that we relied upon,” Winning said. “It wasn’t like in past years when we had girls who were just true goal scorers.”

After winning 15 state titles under former coach Jack Amero, West has a higher standard for success than any other program in the state. But few, if any, would trade the season the Blue Knights enjoyed.

At 11-2-3 during the regular season, just one team ­ Pinkerton ­ had fewer losses than West, a squad that first dealt with the departure of four key starters from last year’s team and then the departure of one this year.

With senior Tori Earle nursing leg and hip injuries that severely limited her playing time against Pinkerton and a 2-0 first-round win over Concord, the Blue Knights persevered without her experience up front. It obviously hurt, but also proved to Winning that returning players like Ithier, Cassie Barnard, Kelsey Connors and Sam Myers should all be ready to lead next season.

West loses seniors Earle, Melissa Vitagliano, Alie Toth, Finley, Abby Green and Katherine Deloid, as well as freshmen Sarah Kelley, Colleen Murray and Kristen Jean, who’ll move to the new Bedford high school, but Winning is confident her team will find its way.