Over the past few years, Trumansburg girls soccer has made it a habit of playing for an IAC championship. The Blue Raiders have won IAC division titles for four straights. 2023 and 2024 saw them capture league titles but they came up short last year. They made sure to make amends in their most recent trip.
On October 17 at Dryden High School, Trumansburg edged Spencer-Van Etten/Candor 1-0 to win their third IAC title in four years. In a tight, physical battle, the Blue Raiders broke the deadlock seven minutes into the second half as Ellie Ouckama squeezed it into the net from the tightest of angles.
It should be no surprise that Ouckama would be the one who made the difference. As the all-time leading scorer in program history with 78 goals and a soon-to-be Division I player at UMass-Lowell, the senior has had quite the illustrious career at Trumansburg and is doing everything she can to make her final season a special one.
“It’s been awesome to watch her leadership grow coming in as an 8th grader and listening and watching those older players,” said head coach Anthony Ouckama. “Now she’s doing it, leading those summer workouts, getting everybody going in our circle, in our warmup, in our pregame. She’s grown more as a vocal leader, too. Also with her play, she leads by hustling after every ball, by not taking defensive plays off.”
Ouckama is far from the only leader on the team. She is one of three senior captains along with defender Ella Simoneau and midfielder Paetyn Howley. The trio has helped a younger team get acclimated right from the get-go, and the results have been nothing short of outstanding.
“Our senior captains had us going throughout the summer,” Ouckama said. “They put in that extra time, got the kids excited about coming out, just kicking around, going on runs throughout the summer on their own. In years’ past, they saw it done for them, so I think they were willing to step up and make it that special season and knew that if they put in the effort early on, it would most likely pay off.”
While the Blue Raiders have quite a few experienced players, this is overall a youthful squad. The majority of the roster is made up of underclassmen. Even with a cast of new characters, they’ve been able to maintain their standard of excellence with a 10-1-1 record and another IAC title in hand.
“We knew we were going to be a little young and didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know how we’d match up,” Ouckama said. “Half of us is a new group, so I think they kind of embraced that as an unknown, not necessarily with the reputation of a powerhouse but needing to earn it on their own. I think they kind of wanted to prove that to themselves and to everybody.”
One of those newcomers is Zafira Ferrari. The freshman has enjoyed a phenomenal debut campaign with eight goals and nine assists, second on the team behind Ouckama’s 14 goals and 10 assists. Ferrari has injected some strong attack prowess to make up for the graduations of Allison Denmark and Lenora Reed.
“She’s definitely got a unique ability to move that ball and kind of feign and fake out defenders and then that knack for going to goal,” Ouckama said. “It’s been nice seeing her tear. She kind of has that nose for the game, that knack to find those open spaces and then work with her teammates. It’s been exciting to see her do that.”
The Blue Raiders are as strong as ever defensively, keeping six shutouts and only allowing six goals. It helps having junior Nalini Minors fully healthy in goal, while Simoneau and junior Lily LaForge are joined in the back line this year by junior Lucy Clementson and freshman Madeline Johnston.
“Defensively is where we hang our hats,” Ouckama said. “Everybody’s pretty tenacious, and we recognized and agreed that if we’re tough to score on, then we’re going to be in every game we play. We’ve got a lot of strength in the back. It’s a team effort. Even our forwards and midfielders are checking back and helping with that defense to make sure that we’re competing in every game.”
The Blue Raiders turn their attention to the Section IV Class C tournament as the top seed. Since there are a whopping 15 teams in the bracket, they’re the only team to get a bye to the quarterfinals on October 23, where they’ll face either Bainbridge-Guilford or Watkins Glen. Whoever they play in their sectional run, their focus is solely on themselves.
“If we can control the energy that we bring into the game and do our best work as a unit, hopefully we get good results,” Ouckama said.
