A season that will be remembered for historic Lady Eagles success came to a close Monday evening in the Region 2A tournament quarterfinals as No. 1 Prince Edward County High School’s varsity girls soccer team fell 5-1 to visiting No. 9 Poquoson High School.

The Lady Eagles were facing a heavily battle-tested Islanders team from the Bay Rivers District, and they were doing so without their leading scorer, freshman Maria Walle Brito, who was participating in an exchange program that took her to Germany this week. She averaged about three goals per game this season.

Still, the Lady Eagles showed fight that helped it start the season 13-0 and finish 14-2, a mark Prince Edward Athletic Director Rodney Kane confirmed was at least tied for the best in team history. The Lady Eagles won the 2018 James River District regular season championship.

On Monday, after the Islanders went up 1-0, Prince Edward freshman Makylah Tillerson scored with a little more than seven-and-a-half minutes left in the first half to the tie the game at 1-1.

Poquoson went back up 2-1 around three minutes before the break and then widened their lead in the second half.

Lady Eagles Head Coach Madeline Buczek said the season ended sadly and on a disappointing note for her team, but it did perform well.

“They fought for it,” Buczek said of her players. “They played the best game that they could. A lot of little kinks kind of got in the way, so they did get a little down, and then kind of once they got down, kind of kept going.”

No. 1 Prince Edward reached the quarterfinals by defeating No. 16 Randolph-Henry High School 9-0 on Friday.

Scoring goals for the Lady Eagles against the Lady Statesmen were Brito, with three, senior Natalie Cheyne, with two, and senior Samantha Buczek, senior Katelyn McAbee, freshman Dianna Quick and Tillerson, with one apiece.

Contemplating how she will remember the 2018 Lady Eagles, Samantha Buczek said, “We improved a lot as a team, and we finally clicked and learned how to work together. And I feel like it was more of a mental thing. Prince Edward hasn’t had the best track record, but coming into this season, I feel like we just dropped everything and just gave our all, and then it really showed in the way that we played, our spirit together as a team.”

Prince Edward last won the district title in 2011 when Coach Buczek played on the team.