LAKELAND — Lakeland Christian never expected to be undefeated this late in the girls soccer season. Vikings coach Jason Streets admitted that he scheduled games he expected his team might lose. Yet with two games to play, the only match where LCS didn’t come away with a win came in a scoreless tie against Class 4A power Riverdale in the second game of the season.
The Vikings’ stayed perfect with two games remaining after their 7-1 victory over Ridge Community on Friday night in a match that was close for the first 45 minutes before the Vikings poured in five second-half goals to turn the match into a rout.
Eden Guynn and Katie Carnes each had two goals for the Vikings.
Lakeland Christian (16-0-1) is looking for its first perfect regular season since the 2013-14 season when it won 28 consecutive games, a school record, before losing to St. Johns Country Day in the state tournament. The Vikings close out the regular season against Berkeley Prep and Lake Wales, both strong teams, so it’s not a given that they’ll finish unbeaten.
But it is a goal.
“I’m not very surprised, honestly,” LCS senior Mary Peace said of her team’s record. “I think every game we’ve played, we’ve stepped up to except that one time where we tied. Besides that, we’ve showed up every game and played together. Teamwork definitely has been one of the biggest things this year.
That his team is in position to go unbeaten in the regular season for only the second time in school history is somewhat a surprise for Streets.
“Our record and everything we’ve done this year is not what I expected,” he said. “I thought we’d be good, but the way we haven’t lost was unexpected. We’ve done well. Everybody that we faced, we rose to the challenge.”
For a half, Ridge Community played nearly even with Lakeland Christian as the Vikings led just 2-1 at halftime. However, after LCS survived offensive attacks by Ridge’s Khyara Cruz Centeno and Elasha Naylor in the first six minutes of the second half, the Vikings got back-to-back goals by Carnes and Peace about a minute apart to take control of the match.
“That’s how our team is,” Peace said. “Once we get that one, we get the momentum and get more goals.”
Isabella Matallana, Carnes on a penalty kick and Katie Williams finished up the scoring.
Lakeland Christian hasn’t played for a week since defeating Holy Names 1-0 for its biggest win of the season and was a little sluggish in the first half. Guynn scored her first goal in the 11th minute, but Naylor tied the score 14 minutes later.
With just over a minute left in the half, Guynn’s header off Ramsey Watkins’ corner kick gave LCS the halftime lead.
“I thought we fought hard and got the second goals right before half, and that was key for us to get the momentum back,” Streets said. “In the second half, I thought we played really well.”