One of a kind Suero sends Spring-Ford to unprecedented run, earns All-Area top honor
There are two Laura Sueros.
There is the enthusiastic, bubbly 17-year-old affectionately known as ‘Mama Bear’ by some of her Spring-Ford girls soccer teammates.
Then Suero steps between the lines.
The positivity remains, but a previously unseen intensity arrives. It shows in nearly everything the Rams defender does on a soccer field with a playing style that blends aggressive defending, technical skill on the ball and second-to-none ability to win headers in spite of consistently being one of the smallest players on the field.
“I’m 5-2 … 5-3. I’ll round up to 5-3,” Suero said with a laugh.
It’s a ‘uniqueness of attitude and personality’, as Spring-Ford coach Tim Leyland puts it, that sets Suero apart.
“For as serious of a player as she is and as demanding of herself as she is, she is, as some of the kids have dubbed her, ‘Mama Bear.’ She looks after everybody,” Leyland said. “Especially the younger kids, the freshmen, the sophomores on JV, Laura took it upon herself to be a leader of a team.”
Her unique makeup was a key piece to what became a golden era for the Spring-Ford girls soccer program. Over the past three seasons, the Rams reached the PIAA Class AAA Championships each season and won two Pioneer Athletic Conference championships. As a senior, with Suero leading with her voice and play on the field, Spring-Ford put together an 18-6-2 record that included appearances in the PAC-10 final, the District 1-AAA semifinals and the quarterfinals of the PIAA Championships.
Revered by her team and opposing teams alike, Suero’s postseason accolades were many, including Pioneer Athletic Conference Most Valuable Player, All-Southeast Pa. Soccer Coaches Association team, Pa. Soccer Coaches Association All-State team and Mercury All-Area Player of the Year. She was also one of only 40 players nationally – and one of only two from Pennsylvania – to participate in the High School All-American Game in Raleigh, N.C.
Other players have talent. Very few have Suero’s fearlessness.
“I have so much urge to get the ball and be aggressive. I don’t know where it came from but I just like being physical and unafraid. When I was little I wasn’t scared of anyone or anything. It’s natural I guess,” she said.
Genetic even.
“My dad (Neil Suero) was an All-American in college at Alfred State (N.Y.) and in high school at Fairport (outside of Rochester, N.Y.),” she said. “I think I take it from him. He played center back and wore No. 22.”
Suero couldn’t have asked for a better teacher in her formative years and coach in youth soccer until age 12.
She couldn’t have asked for better teammates either — then and now.
Suero became teammates with Taylor Newhart and Gabrielle Vagnozzi with the West-Mont United Wildcats when they were 7 years old.
“It was such an amazing experience. We all met – we were 7 years old – and we were unbeatable. We were undefeated for four years. We had the time of our lives together, did everything together,” Suero said.
Suero continued her club career with FC Bucks for the past four years while Vagnozzi and Newhart joined FC Continental. Yet the trio with Division I soccer futures – Suero will play at Penn State in fall 2016, Vagnozzi at St. Joseph’s and Newhart at La Salle – stuck together at Spring-Ford.
One player doesn’t rewrite the trajectory of a soccer program. But a talented core can.
That was the case with defender Newhart, forward Vagnozzi – both All-Area first team selections – and Suero, plus classmates Bri Cirino and Amy Roth. The Rams’ three consecutive years of reaching the final eight of the state is the second-best three-year run of any team since 2012, when girls soccer began having a true state champion when all districts started competing in the fall. (Only Central Bucks East’s 2013-15 run of reaching two state semifinals and one final is better.)
Suero, Newhart and Vagnozzi were as important players as any for the Rams’ state finalist team in 2013 and became guides for a program attempting to maintain a place as state contenders.
“They were so demanding of themselves but they were the first ones to react if a teammate would make a mistake and lift up their spirits,” Leyland said. “Laura, Gabrielle and Taylor took it upon themselves as seniors to be leaders by example and then be even better people off the field. They were the key to our success over four years. They were incredible.”
Suero’s play spoke volumes, but so did her voice by becoming an uplifting vocal leader even before most players would think they’re “supposed to.”
“The seniors are usually the talkers on the field. But I morphed into it at a young age. As a sophomore I started talking more and more,” Suero said. “As a defender, I see the whole field. If I talk it makes it easier for everyone on the field. When one person talks more people tend to talk, too.
“I love to be approachable and to make everyone feel comfortable, happy and having fun. I love being positive. I want to help my teammates and lift them up.”
Spring-Ford’s back four of Suero, Newhart, Roth and junior Missy Moore formed arguably the best defense in the state over the past two seasons. In 2015, they conceded only 15 goals in 26 matches and kept every match close – Spring-Ford conceded two goals in a match only once and did not lose any game by more than one goal.
Central to that – literally and figuratively – was the yin and yang center back pairing of Suero and Newhart. In their differences – Suero the undersized, daring defender; Newhart the prototypical, poised back – created a perfect balance.
“It was amazing. Coming in, I didn’t think we’d be center backs together,” Suero said. “She had my back all the time, I had her’s. We could read each other on the field. I knew what she was doing, she knew what I was doing. It just worked.”
The Rams rattled off six shutouts to start the season and put together their best regular season of the three-year run by going unbeaten in the PAC-10 (11-0-2). Yet Boyertown denied Spring-Ford a third-straight PAC-10 championship with a 1-0 win in the final on Oct. 22.
Scoring troubles became a recurring theme through the Rams’ postseason run, inducing Leyland to try something: he broke up the Suero-Newhart partnership.
“(Leyland) was like, ‘Do you want to play holding mid?’” she said. “‘Yeah! I’ll play holding mid!’ I got forward and he knows I like to get forward, try to score goals and attack. And that’s what we needed.”
Suero scored three goals and had three assists this season as the primary target on corner kicks and set pieces thanks to her quality on headers. She memorably scored more a few in that fashion – she scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Owen J. Roberts in the 2014 District 1 playbacks to clinch a place in states – and did it again in her finale.
Against Harriton in the second round of districts, the Rams were in control but couldn’t find the net. Suero changed that with a shocking diving header on a cross by Moore over the defense to ignite Spring-Ford to a 2-0 win. A round later, the Rams clinched a return to the PIAA playoffs and a first spot in the District 1 semifinals with a comprehensive 3-1 win over OJR.
The Rams were left frustrated in a 1-0 loss to eventual district champ and PIAA finalist Central Bucks East but they ably bounced back by defeating Archbishop Ryan 2-1 in the PIAA first round to set up a state matchup with District 3 powerhouse Cumberland Valley for the first straight season.
If the end wasn’t destined for glory, it was at least poetic. Spring-Ford’s three-year run will be most noted for its PIAA playoff wins over Cumberland Valley in 2013 and 2014. The final game, the 101st of their high school careers for the 2016 class, came on a brisk Saturday night in Hamburg on Nov. 14, a 1-0 defeat to the team they’d ousted the previous two seasons.
“Knowing it was our senior year, I wanted to take it all in and have the best time because it was our last year together,” Suero said. “I won’t ever been playing soccer with (my Spring-Ford teammates) again so we took it all in and had a fun, successful year. It could have been more successful but in the end it was a great season and I wouldn’t change it.”
