Fort Meade got those elusive goals in the first half then held off top-seeded McKeel for a stunning 2-1 victory on Friday in the championship match of the Class 2A, District 10 girls soccer tournament at Lake Bonny Park.
LAKELAND — McKeel had more chances — many more chances — than Fort Meade to score goals, but chances don’t show up on the scoreboard, only goals.
Fort Meade got those elusive goals in the first half then held off top-seeded McKeel for a stunning 2-1 victory on Friday in the championship match of the Class 2A, District 10 girls soccer tournament at Lake Bonny Park.
“I’m speachless to be honest,” Fort Meade coach Logan Green said. “They worked hard. These seniors, when they started, the went winless. As seventh-graders they didn’t win a game. And to come to this point as district champions, it’s what they wanted. It’s what they worked hard for and no one deserves it more.”
Fort Meade (20-4-1) lost to McKeel 5-2 in the third game of the season, but a 1-1 tie in mid-December showed the Miners they could play with the Wildcats. To actually beat the Wildcats, the Miners needed several players to come up big, and no player was bigger than Kareli Sanchez.
The senior goalkeeper was aggressive in goal and came up with big save after big save.
“I trust my defenders, and they slow it down a lot for me,” Sanchez said. “Because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I could get it at the speed they would come in.”
Sanchez often came out and pounced on the ball as a Wildcat attacker was charging the box.
“That’s how I play when it’s a team like this,” she said. “They shoot a through ball and they come running, and sometimes they pass my defenders and I just got to have their back.”
It was no surprise that high-scoring midfielder Jackie Montes was another player who came up big. Montes scored her 49th goal of the year late in the first half to give the Miners a 1-0 lead.
“I think it made us work even harder because we knew the other team was going to come out way harder because we were up one,” Montes said. “But I think it encouraged us that we can win. We knew we could win from the beginning. We just had to work really hard.”
Salma Montes’s goal on a free kick minutes later gave Fort Meade what proved to be an insurmountable lead.
“It’s overwhelming,” Montes said. “
McKeel began the game putting consistent pressure on the Miners. BooBoo Jones, Kaitlyn Ford and Madison Dodd all had strong goal-scoring chances in the first half, as midfielder Asha Zunia quarterbacked the attack with passes down the side that set up runs. McKeel hit the post or hit over the net or Sanchez came up with a big save.
Early in the second half, Zuniga set up Ford, who finally got McKeel on the scoreboard. Later in the half, Kyndal Severit missed on a header. She later set up Zuniga, but the ensuing shot went wide. Sanchez came up big late on a hard shot by Chloe Martin who didn’t have a defender in front of her.
“This happens every year,” McKeel coach Jacob Sweeney said. “We go against Frostproof, we go against Fort Meade, we go against Lake Placid. They pack the defense. All they do is send ball away all night long. If you can’t find a way to work through that, play around it and get behind them, you’re never going to score. We created the opportunties, we just could finish the opportunities.”