Staff photo / Brian Yauger Members of the Warren JFK girls soccer team celebrate after clinching the Portage Trail Conference title on Tuesday.

WARREN — Kennedy clinched its first league title since 2019 on Tuesday after dispatching Lake Center Christian 5-0 to capture the Portage Trail Conference crown.

The 11-3-1 Eagles are soaring at the right time as the postseason rapidly approaches.

Andrea Ryan, who has been dominant to say the least this season, tallied four of the team’s five goals against the Tigers.

She’s a big reason for Kennedy’s success, but no matter what the numbers say, this is not a one-man team.

“They come out and they work really hard,” Eagles coach Kayla Zoccole said. “I have every single girl on my entire team with a stat of some sort. A goal, an assist, an assist to an assist. Every single person on this team contributes to every win. (Ryan) might score us some goals, but every single player contributes to getting her that ball and finishing that. We worked really hard on confidence this year and just believing in ourselves because at the end of the day, if you think you’re the best, you are.”

That approach to confidence has helped the Eagles rise from a 1-11 campaign in 2021 to flipping the script two seasons later.

There’s still some players from that team on the roster, namely senior captain Amelia Bonacker.

She’s played an essential role in getting the program back up to speed, and Bonacker is getting to benefit from her work as well.

“Amelia was on this team when we were not so successful and she stuck it out. She kept the energy very positive and very high,” Zoccole said. “Now we’ve got some more people that can play and it’s almost like a reward to her that she kept herself in it all these years. It’s finally a rewarding season for her because she deserves it and so do the rest of these girls.”

And the Eagles are built to last. In addition to Ryan, seven other players are freshmen this season. It’s an exciting time for Kennedy.

“Most of my starting line is freshmen which is kind of crazy and huge for me,” Zoccole said. “The energy is just really high. They compete really hard and they listen. There’s a lot of new girls, but a lot of girls that really want to win and be successful and they trust me and the other coaches and we’re running with it.”

After last year’s 4-9 finish, including a first-round tournament exit, and the three defeats from this season, the Eagles are ready for revenge.

“We’ll know seed and stuff this weekend and voting will be early next week. We’re trying to get some revenge on some of these teams that got us this year,” Zoccole said. “We’re trying to see them hopefully in the tournament and compete at this level versus where we were at the beginning of the season and I think we could take it home.”

Kennedy rounds out the regular season on Wednesday with a road matchup against Bristol. The teams met earlier in the season, with Kennedy putting down the Panthers 8-0. After that game, the focus shifts purely toward the playoffs.

byauger@tribtoday.com