Montville — The inventory of accomplishments in recent days is a substantial one for the Montville High School girls' soccer team, which clinched at least a share of the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division III title Monday night.

Right in the midst of the index of successes is the goalie, senior Lauren Ross, the kid with the stars and stripes on her goalie jersey and the 30 career shutouts, a total she upped from 29 with the Indians' 5-0 division victory over St. Bernard.

"It's kind of, like, surreal," Ross said. "I've been playing with these girls since ... young. We've been connecting to the passes a lot better than in previous years. The team vibe definitely plays a part in how we play out on the field."

Montville defeated division rival Stonington last week 2-1. Stonington, which topped the Indians 1-0 earlier in the season, can clinch a tie for the title with a victory next Monday at Griswold.

Ross, who has 36 career wins, broke the school record with her 29th career shutout last Tuesday at New London. On Saturday, the Indians got a dramatic game-winning goal from Olivia Meehan in double overtime to beat Division II opponent Waterford.

Meehan and Michaela MacCracken scored two goals each for Montville (11-3, 7-1) against St. Bernard (8-5, 3-4) and Kara Beaupre had a goal and two assists. The Indians led 2-0 at halftime.

"I remember my first game freshman year," said Ross, also one of the ECC's top hurders in indoor and outdoor track, who has started in goal for all four seasons at Montville. "It was against a really strong team (Weston). And I hadn't had that much experience, not at this level. I was just trying to do my best. ... I've gotten a lot more vocal."

"She's come out of her shell huge," Montville coach April Parady-Walter said of Ross. "She's grown tremendously. She has dance moves, even, in practice. ... She's setting the bar high."

Parady-Walter complimented the team's six seniors: Ross, Meehan, MacCracken, Beaupre, Lauren Velazquez and Katelin Price.

"They've got great chemistry on the field," she said. "They just jell."

One thing Parady-Walter, who took last season off following the birth of her son Bryson, didn't see as much as she would have liked Monday was finesse. The Indians bashed most of their goals, with MacCracken starting the trend by placing a line shot over the head of St. Bernard sophomore goalie Olivia Massad with 6 minutes, 52 seconds remaining in the first half to break a scoreless tie.

Meehan did the same thing a few moments later from the right side, beating Massad high.

"We play possession. We're not a long ball team," Parady-Walter said. "Those were just bombs."

Parady-Walter called the earlier victory over Waterford, a previous division rival, "an exclamation point on the season."

"They kicked us out of ECCs for tournament play (last year). I was here on the sideline, I think it was raining and we ended the (ECC) season on that."

v.fulkerson@theday.com