Hollis Brookloine's Grace Dow, right, and Livia Ward celebrate Ward's first of two goals in the Cavs' 3-1 win over John Stark on Thursday night in Hollis. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOLLIS – The good times just keep rolling along for the Hollis Brookline High School girls soccer team.

Third game in four days? No problem, as the Cavaliers won their 42nd straight as a program on Thursday night, besting John Stark Regional 3-1 in HB’s home opener.

It’s a winning streak the 4-0 (this year) Cavs and their coach, Peter Clarke, don’t shy away from.

“With the first win, it was pointed out we’re 39-0,” Clarke said. “And then it was pointed out we’re 40-0, and now it’s back on their mind. Winning another championship is our primary goal; going undefeated would certainly get us there.”

When you win that many in a row, some of them seem repetitive. Thus when Stark’s Kaitlyn Ouellette boomed one that found the twine about two minutes in for a 1-0 Generals lead, it reminded Clarke about a game vs. rival Milford a couple of years ago when the same thing happened.

“We went over there, we had only given up three goals (all season) and they scored first and the place went apart,” Clarke recalled. “That was the moment when we’re going to decide who we are, you look out at the girls and they’re saying ‘No way’, they stay composed and then we rocked.

“Same thing here. For this team, a lot of new players, they wanted to define themselves tonight, and they won some roles.”

“Obviously, Coach Clarke, he’s got a phenomenal squad,” Stark coach Dana Pellerin said. “They’re fast, they’re physical, they play the ball very well from the midfield, they’ve got good feet …

“We got on them early with a nice ball that Kaitlyn Ouellette tucked into the back of the net, which is fantastic. Then after that I don’t know if we got out of our heads a little bit, we kind of got out of our game and they put it to us when we were down. … We had our chances in the second half, but you know, they’ve got a great team over there.”

HB’s speed was the difference last night. Rosalie Desantis got the hosts untracked, evening the game at 1 about 10 minutes in with a boot from the left side.

But the spotlight eventually belonged to speedy sophomore Livia Ward who had two goals. She took Grace Dowd’s feed and directed it past Stark keeper Sydney Barrieau just past the midway point of the first half to give the Cavs a lead at 2-1 it would not relinquish. She got the clincher at 61:47 off a pass from Molly Reardon.

It could have been 6-1, really, or worse. Three – count ’em, three – HB goals were disallowed, two due to off-sides calls and another on a foul in front of the Stark net during a mad scramble with Barrieau fighting for her soccer life.

“We played well enough,” Clarke said, “to have had three or four more goals.”

Stark didn’t provide much pressure through the final two-thirds of the first half but were causing problems for the Cassidy Engle-led Cavs’ defense for a decent portion of the second 40 minutes.

Hollis Brookline’s Molly Reardon (5) battles John Stark’s Kaitlyn Ouellette along the sideline during Thursday night’s Division II clash in Hollis. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But HB’s defense stood tall in front of keeper Maddy Leonard (three saves). The starter in goal on the last two titles teams, Mya Blackman, is out until next month due to injury.

“There’s Cassidy Engle always, and Ysa Ramas had a very good game as a center back,” Clarke said of his defense. “And frankly the one who earned a role this year is A.J. Thibeault. She never came off the field, she was rock solid.”

It’s a rock solid team, one that still will certainly be challenged. There’s games against the Spartans and another local rival, Souhegan, not to mention the likes of Oyster River and you know Bow, last year’s finals victim, will be geared up on Sept. 23.

“The girls have that in front of them as an intermediate goal,” Clarke said of the streak. “How long can we stay unbeaten? If we don’t, it doesn’t mean we’re not winning a championship, but how long can we keep going? Got to play with confidence.”

“When they go undefeated for 41 straight (42 now), it’s not by luck,” Pellerin said. “It’s by skill.”