After winning the South Sectional Championship title for the fourteenth time in Porker history, the Walpole Porkers advanced into the playoffs.  Yet, they were unable to bring the Championship trophy home to the pen as the team had set out to do.

Walpole breezed through the first four rounds of the playoffs, until they were met by the Weston Wildcats.  In the first tournament game against Hingham, the Porkers won with a 2-0 victory.  Then, the Porkers moved onto the quarterfinals, in which they defeated Dennis-Yarmouth, 3-0.  Next came the semifinals, where the Porkers blanked Wellesley 2-0, earning them a South Sectional final bearth.  

However, the Porker’s streak of playoff shutouts would be snapped at three.  In the South Sectional Finals, Walpole squared off against Somerset.  The first half of the game was played at a fast tempo, with both teams getting many breakaways.  With 4:04 left in the half, senior Taylor Silvestro fought for the ball around the cage and made a pass to junior Stephanie Frye, who scored the game’s first goal.  As Walpole entered the second half, junior Liz Malone scored to put the Porkers up 2-0.  Then with 7:58 left in the game, junior Jen Walsh scored off an assist from Silvestro.  With only 1:22 remaining, Somerset’s Ashley Ryan managed to score.  But, the game was at that point out of reach for the Raider’s, ending with a final score of 3-1.   

Yet when it came down to the semifinals of the Eastern Mass sectionals, the Porkers were unable to produce a win.  After Weston scored the first goal, junior Shelby Guisi returned a rebound past the Wildcat goalie, tieing the game 1-1 with 19 minutes to play.  But, the Wildcats pounced on the Porkers 13 seconds later, as they scored what was ultimately the game winning goal.  Walpole’s season was over after the 2-1 defeat.

Despite many setbacks the Porker’s faced at the beginning of the season, including pressure to replace seven of last year’s key starters, and senior goalie Cori Cisternelli’s early injury, the Porkers ended the season with an impressive 19-3-1 record. For the second consecutive year, the season ended in the state semifinals for the Walpole Porkers, a great accomplishment in itself.  But, when you play for the Porkers, anything less than a state championship feels like a dissapointment.  Next year, the Porkers will look to return to glory, as they return more than half of the varsity squad.