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Editor’s note: Each week during the fall sports season, Varsity Maine will highlight a boys and girls team of the week. The teams, picked by staff members, will take into account several factors, including success stories, bounce-back efforts and notable accomplishments, among others. Athletes, coaches and athletic directors can nominate teams by emailing sports editor Bill Stewart at [email protected] or Varsity Maine editor Lee Horton at [email protected].

Varsity Maine Girls Team of the Week: Poland soccer

Behind two goals apiece from forwards Leksi Langevin and Addison Gravel, Poland defeated Old Orchard Beach 4-0 on Sept. 15 to move to 5-0-1 on the young season.

After missing the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, the Knights won 11 games in 2025. This season, with a roster anchored by 11 seniors, they’ve picked up right where they left off. On Monday, Poland extended its winning streak to six games by defeating York, 1-0.

“There’s no doubt, any time any team comes out and can win six out of seven games, certainly you’re in the right path, right?” said coach Juan Bustamante. “We also know that some of the competition we played, it’s not top-tier. But we’re not taking any team for granted, right? We show up for every team, we prepare for every team. I do my best on scouting teams.”

Bustamante continues to emphasize taking every competitor seriously, especially given the program’s history. Poland has never won a playoff game, and that continues to be a goal players want to accomplish. 

“We’ve been taken not seriously in the past,” Bustamante said. “My girls have said, look, before teams would look at us and go, ‘Hey, there’s a win.’ But they’re not doing that anymore, right? And I think that’s a big step for the program. … I’ve got some really good athletes on my team that I’ve been coaching since they were eighth graders, and their development, it’s been leaps and bounds.”

The Knights will face perhaps their biggest challenge of the season when they host Freeport (4-1) at 11 a.m. Saturday.