The Concord Christian girls’ soccer team faced its biggest challenge of the season against Newmarket in a rematch of last year’s 2-1 loss in the Division IV semifinals.

On Thursday afternoon, CCA made history by turning the tables on the Mules, this time winning 2-1 thanks to two goals by forward Emma Smith.

Smith scored a goal in each half. The first one went high through the hands of Newmarket’s goalkeeper. The second was pure skill. Smith and midfielder Layla Fortin were breaking away on a counter-attack against two defenders tracking back. Fortin drew the defender out by dribbling forward, and sent a through ball to Smith on the right wing who sent a rocket into the top of the net.

“The first one was more for a cross, but a goal works,” said Smith. “We’re a really good passing team, so we try and find players to connect, and we talk a lot, and we work a lot on passing and scoring in practice.”

Newmarket came out of the half with force, and created chances from everywhere including long shots, crosses and set plays designed to get the ball in the box, but CCA held on. Goalkeeper Kate Smith had six saves to keep the lead.

“They’ve got such good shooters from long distance, and have the skill set with the footwork, just making sure positionally, we’re between them and the goal,” said head coach Josh Winans of the Kingsmen. “Obviously the good saves from Kate were awesome. But also their shots missing helped us out as well in that regard.”

The Mules showed why they’re a contender every year and forwards Jillian Long – who scored a goal with 16 minutes left in the half – and Olivia Blackadar pushed Concord Christian’s defense to the limit.

“Josh’s teams, they always compete. This year, they’ve got a lot of quality, and they’re really tough to deal with,” said Newmarket head coach Andrew Dawson. “Even in such a frantic game like this. I think funnily enough, we need to be a little more patient. I think we need to be able to build it a little bit more.”

The Kingsmen (8-0-1) tied their first game of the season against Profile but remained undefeated walking onto the pitch on Thursday. On the other side of the field, the Mules were coming off a huge 8-2 win over Sanborn and were on a hot five-game win streak, with an overall record of 8-2-0.

The Kingsmen now have a good lead over the Mules in seeding, but will have to travel to Newmarket on Monday and try to make more history by beating them away.

“Newmarket’s not going away by any means. But this is the first time our program, our school, has beat them in girls varsity soccer,” said Winans. “I’m going to soak it all in until I go to sleep, and then tomorrow it’s back to work.”