By Gary Curreri
Highlands Christian Academy girls soccer coach Shelly Wik knew her team would have to rise to the occasion as it hosted the girls District 14-2A championship on Jan. 21.
The Knights (16-21) did as it defeated the South Florida Heat, 1-0 (5-4 PKs), for the school’s first-ever girls district soccer championship in the 10-year history of the program. Highlands Christian and the Heat (19-8-1) battled to a 0-0 draw after regulation and overtime.
“I am so proud of how the girls played in the district games,” said Wik, whose team will host Boca Raton’s Pope John Paul II in the regional quarterfinals on Thursday at 7 p.m. “The girls avenged their two regular season losses and pulled together as a team to win districts with dignity and Christian character.”
Alley Costello, Joanna Marko, Cybille Lassegue, Grayson Mack and Marina Mueller each scored a goal in the penalty kick shootout. Mueller’s goal was the decisive goal. Knights’ goalie Kayla Wincko had 14 saves in the match and needed to make two saves in the shootout for the victory.
Dillard downs Tigers in girls hoops
Kayla Wright scored nine of her game-high 18 points in the second half as host Dillard downed Blanche Ely, 47-40, in a District 16-5A game on Saturday night.
The Panthers (14-5, 8-1) broke open a 24-24 game early in the second half and outscored the Tigers (14-6, 5-4) 23-17 for the victory.
T’Keyah Williams had five points, while Lauren McGraw added four in the first quarter as Dillard jumped out to a 14-7 first quarter lead. Blanche Ely closed to within 24-22 at halftime and tied the game at 24-24 on a short jumper by Crystal Allen with 7:34 remaining in the third quarter.
Dillard pulled away from there as McGraw and Williams each finished with 10 points.
Blanche Ely coach Clarence Fleming said his team needed to take better care of the basketball. Arkeba Johnson paced the Tigers with 15 points.
“We are not going to beat a good team giving them that many second shot attempts,” Fleming said. “We couldn’t make shots and they did a good job rebounding and making free throws.”
Fleming said everything is correctable by districts.
“It gives us a pretty good idea of where we need to be in order to have a chance to win districts,” Fleming said. “We have to play hard, and it will be an uphill fight. The biggest thing we have to work on is possession and every possession counts. I think we can win it. We need to make a few modifications. There are some things we can do better, and, next time, I think we can play a better game all the way around.”
Ely soccer team runner-up
The Blanche Ely boys soccer team recently dropped a 1-0 decision to Tampa Sickles in the final round of the Ridge-wood Invitational in New Port Richey.
The Tigers had five of their players make the all-tournament team including Nilson Miranda (top defender), Kemberlyn Jean-Etienne, Techlie Tacynthe, Finnddy Innocent and Volvins St. Louis.
