Return of Goehring, Babo lift Orono girls' soccer

Sitting out the high school soccer season a year ago, Carly Goehring watched from afar as lifelong friends on the Orono soccer team laughed together and rode buses together and won games together.

Goehring and Orono teammate Sophie Babo spent the fall of 2013 training with the Minnesota Thunder Academy, missing the high school season altogether. That, Goehring said, never felt quite right.

"I'd be walking around school and I'd see the team all pumped up for a game, and I felt out of it," she said recently.

But thanks to some hard-won changes in the Thunder Academy's current schedule, Geohring and Babo are back in the fold at Orono. The effect has changed the Spartans' outlook from high hopes to great expectations.

Orono made a loud statement with an impressive 1-0 victory over two-time defending state champion Benilde-St. Margaret's on Sept. 2, announcing the Spartans as Class 1A state title contenders.

"You could just see last year how much talent there was coming back," said Babo, a senior midfielder and four-year starter at Orono who became the leading scorer in team history even before she left to play for the Thunder. "It's exciting to think of what we can do adding me and Carly."

Orono lost only five seniors from a 2013 team that went 16-3-1, with two of those losses coming at the feet of Benilde-St. Margaret's. The return of two elite-level players to an already formidable lineup has paid quick dividends. Through Saturday, the Spartans were 6-0, including shutout victories over both 2013 state finalists, Benilde-St. Margaret's and Blake.

Both Goehring and Babo are quick to say they have no issue with the Thunder Academy, which plays in the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) that competes at the same time as Minnesota's high school soccer season. Both will return to the Thunder once the high school season ends.

"I love my ECNL team, but when you play for your high school team, the fans support you at a higher level," said Babo, who has committed to the University of Kentucky. "You get to play under the lights, have music played during the games, fans and fellow classmates come out to support you. ECNL is fun because of the high level of play, but this is something completely different."

The only worry for Murray with the return of the prodigal players was having to cut the number of open positions on the team during tryouts.

"When they first came back, I told them they would be trying out for a position like everyone else," Murray said. "But the fact that they had both been starters here before, it was more like coming back from an injury."

She added that having too many good players is not likely to garner sympathy from opposing coaches.

With both Babo and Goerhing having a strong history with the program, senior captain Catherine Fraser said that the entire team was excited to have them back and ensured their reacceptance went smoothly.

"We welcomed them back with open arms," Fraser said "They fit right back into what we were trying to do right away. I think we've improved exponentially."

It's also buoyed their belief in themselves and their expectations.

"When we meet together in the locker room, there's a calm confidence in ourselves," Fraser said. "We haven't felt that before."

Babo agreed, remembering the nerves that used that used to go hand-in-hand with big games. "We used to tense up and get intimidated when we played good teams," she said. "Now, we're the ones doing the intimidating."

"This has been so much fun," Goehring said. "When we scored that goal against Benilde, we were all jumping around so much we fell into a big dogpile. We don't ever celebrate that much in ECNL. Playing here is like playing for family."

Jim Paulsen • 612-673-7737