When Richmond Hill’s girls’ soccer team takes the field next spring in pursuit of a fourth straight region championship, there will be a new face on the sidelines leading the charge.

Wildcats athletic director Stacy Bennett announced Monday that current Richmond Hill Middle School girls’ soccer coach Shawn Allen would be replacing Kelly Anderson who resigned after two seasons.

Anderson had been an assistant coach at Richmond Hill for three years under Dorothy Biron-Vonglis before taking over the program. Biron-Vonglish was 37-9 in three seasons with her last team going 18-3 and winning the Region 2-6A region title while advancing to the Elite Eight.

Under Anderson, the Wildcats did not miss a beat as they posted back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons after moving up to Class 7A. In going 31-2-2 overall Richmond Hill finished 16-1-2 this season, losing to North Paulding, 2-0, in the second round of the state playoffs. Last year’s team was 15-1 after losing in the state quarterfinals to eventual state champion Denmark, 4-0.

Ironically, Allen was the boys’ head coach at North Paulding prior to coming to Richmond Hill, according to Bennett.

The trademark of Anderson’s teams was defense as the Wildcats gave up only 16 goals, eight each season, in 35 games while posting 26 shutouts. Offensively her first team scored 68 goals but bumped that up to 102 this past season.

Allen will be inheriting a team which returns nearly everyone as the Wildcats had only three seniors. Goalkeeper Kamryn Martinez is a rising junior who started as a freshman.