By MATT METCALF

Assistant Sports Editor

Not every high school athlete’s path is the same.

Some encounter roadblocks and have to fight when the odds are stacked against them, while others are fortunate enough to avoid injuries.

Mia Sardella, of Cranston, was a standout for La Salle’s girls’ soccer team from the moment she stepped foot on school ground her freshman year.

The team won its ninth Division I title that season, and she was poised for a breakout sophomore year, until she tore her anterior cruciate ligament at the end of her freshman year.

Sardella had surgery the first day of summer after her freshman year, which sidelined her until the spring, keeping her out for all of La Salle’s fall season and for her club team’s season, as well.

But knowing that her sophomore year was lost, Sardella went back to work, rehabbing her knee in preparation for her junior season.

The Rams failed to make it to the finals during Sardella’s sophomore year, and she admits that it was tough to watch her team while she couldn’t make an impact on the field.

While her team would practice, she would do her exercises at physical therapy, hoping to get back on the field as soon as possible.

“It was tough to see the team lose, even though I wasn’t playing,” Sardella said. “I wished I could be out there with them. I missed a whole 11 months of a sport I love to play, so that was hard.”

Not only did Sardella miss the soccer season, but she missed the indoor track season as well, as she runs in several sprinting events for the Rams.

The midfielder returned for her junior season after nearly a full year away from soccer, and she didn’t miss a beat.

Sardella was named a Division I All-Division selection in her junior season, as the Rams went 12-0-2 to lead Division I with 38 points, en route to winning the state title.

Individually, Sardella’s senior year was even more impressive.

She stepped up offensively, recording 10 goals and seven assists, which both led the Rams.

Furthermore, Sardella recorded back-to-back hat tricks against Lincoln and Cumberland this season.

All of her hard work was bound to pay off, and it did.

Less than a month ago, she was named first-team All-State, something that was definitely a goal of Sardella’s, especially after coming back from the ACL injury.

“I’m just happy that all of my hard work paid off,” Sardella said. “As a team, we worked really hard all summer, we started training in July.”

As a team, the Rams failed to win the state title, falling to Portsmouth in penalty kicks in the state championship. The loss came after a season in which La Salle had previously lost only one game, making it that much tougher to swallow.

“It was definitely tough,” Sardella said. “It was heartbreaking for all of us. We all had the same goal at the beginning of the season and that was to win a state championship. Penalty kicks isn’t the best way to lose a game, any game. It was disappointing knowing that’s what it came down to.”

With a successful high school career behind her, Sardella will now turn her attention to the college game, where she’s committed to play Division I soccer at Loyola University in Baltimore, Md.

It’s something that she’s dreamed of since she started playing the game of soccer.

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was younger to play Division I soccer,” Sardella said. “I like that the school is small, it’s not too big and it’s in a city.”

The Greyhounds play in the Patriot League along with schools such as Colgate, Boston University, Army and Navy.

The league that Loyola plays in was big in influencing her decision as well, as she’s always wanted to play in a league with solid academic institutions.

Sardella will look to take the success she had at La Salle and transfer it over to the college level.

After the injury during her sophomore year, NCAA Division I soccer was a serious question mark.

Now she’ll get to live out that dream.