Oct. 11—ROCHESTER — Amelia Gossman will never go down as "shy."

At least not on the soccer field where the senior is one of Rochester Lourdes' better all-time forwards.

"She was fearless as a freshman," Lourdes longtime coach Sarah Groven said. "She'd just put her head down and go after that ball. That's something for a freshman. She wanted to score goals then and she earned a spot by showing some of that grit even though there were a lot of older girls on the team."

Now, Gossman is one of those older girls. And nothing's changed, except maybe her willingness to not just score, but to lead and provide Groven an invaluable coach on the field.

In her fourth year on the Lourdes varsity, Gossman has never been more important to what the Eagles are doing. And what they've been up to is having another standout season, at 10-4 overall and ranked sixth in Class A.

On Thursday, Lourdes will begin postseason play in the Section 2A playoffs.

"Amelia is a person who works hard all the time," Groven said. "She is also that person who I go to when I've got an idea, just to bounce it off of her. I know that I can go to Amelia and that she will give it to me straight."

Gossman's favorite time of year is fall, winter, spring and summer. That's because each of the 12 months — for her — contain soccer. Once the fall high school is done, she jumps right onto a club traveling soccer team that takes her practically to the beginning of the next high school season, in August.

There's nothing she'd rather be doing than kicking a ball, and more specifically, kicking it into a net.

Over her four-year Lourdes career, Gossman has scored 39 goals, including 10 this season, when she's also been good for nine assists. A year ago, when she benefited from the long-ball passes of since-graduated Lindsey Birch, she had a career high 19 goals.

Gossman is a natural-born offensive player.

"Amelia is one of those players who wants to score," Groven said. "It's one thing to be able to shoot and score a goal. But it's another thing to have that nose for the net. She knows where it is at all times and is not afraid to go after it. Athletically, she's got great footwork and skills and she's not afraid to make moves around defenders. She's not afraid to take a chance."

Gossman credits much of her long-standing fearlessness to her sister, Isabella, a 2019 Lourdes graduate and former Eagles soccer player.

It was their backyard one-on-one soccer duels that built the fight in Amelia and also built confidence that she could compete with and against anyone, no matter their age.

"When I was younger, Isabella was always pushing me (to get better)," Amelia said. "When we'd play in the backyard, we'd always try to go at each other. It was a rivalry and sometimes we'd fight a little bit. But mostly we got along."

Gossman has carried that fighter's fearlessness with her since getting Lourdes varsity time as a freshman, on an Eagles team that reached the state tournament.

Her experiences going nose to nose with Isabella made diving right in as a freshman that much easier. She never hesitated to go right at the older girls.

"I wasn't afraid to (play with them)," Gossman said. "A lot of younger kids are intimidated by older players. But I wasn't afraid to try my best right in front of them. They helped me a lot. They pushed me to become a lot better and a lot more aggressive."

There is only one thing that Gossman is afraid of these days when it comes to soccer. It's fearing the end of the Lourdes soccer season, whenever that is.

She's not intending to play college soccer. That means this will be it. When Lourdes' season ends, her days of representing a school in soccer will end with it.

For the Lourdes senior, that's almost too much to handle. Being a member of these Eagles soccer teams have been her happiest times.

"When the season ends, it's going to be really sad," Gossman said. "I've made my best memories on the soccer field and off it with these (Lourdes teams). It seems like not that long ago that I was a freshman and thinking that I had three more years to do all of these things.

"But now, it's really getting down there."

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