The regular soccer season drew to a close on November 1 for the Dartmouth High girls’ team, and the final win signaled the end of a rut.

The Indians wrapped up a final home match against New Bedford, scoring the winning goal midway through the second half after holding a 1-1 tie for most of the game. The Whalers made attempts to challenge Dartmouth’s lead, but ultimately the home team pulled through with a 1-2 win.

“As we get ready to go into the tournament, it was nice to finish the regular season with a win,” said Head Coach Mark Poirier after the match.

He added that the team had been in a scoring drought for the past two weeks. Out of the past six matches, four ended without a single point for Dartmouth – something Poirier had been worried about with the postseason looming.

For Poirier, the win was a bittersweet ending to what has been a tough season for the Indians. Despite starting out the season strong and securing a 6-0-1 record, things went downhill after Dartmouth faced powerhouse Bridgewater-Raynham, finishing with its first goalless match of the season with a 0-2 loss.

“We’ve been playing some really good teams so some of those results were not unanticipated,” Poirier said, pointing to Bridgewater-Raynham, Brockton, and Bishop Stang as the toughest matchups of the season.

With the win against New Bedford, the Indians ended the season with a 9-6-3 record, but Poirier is already concerned about how that will play out in seeding for a tournament run.

“We’re going to be somewhere down at around an 11 or 12 seed, and we’re going to be playing a really good team at the top of the draw,” Poirier explained.

Despite the struggles during the regular season, Poirier said the girls really stepped up to perform. He emphasized team play throughout the season, encouraging the girls to work together and share many responsibilities – including scoring.

“We’ve spread our goal scoring around so it isn’t just one person that is scoring goals,” Poirier said. “If you look at the statistics, you would probably find almost everyone who has played has at least one assist.”

He added that junior Gwenyth Taradash is the anchor of the Indians' defense, and senior Casey Good and junior Jillian Prout are two of the team’s highest goal scorers.

Just as Poirier had predicted, the Indians picked up an 11th seed heading into the playoffs. The team will travel to Medfield for the first round of the Div. 2 South tournament on November 5 at 6 p.m.