The girls’ varsity soccer team defeated the Episcopal School of Jacksonville in the FHSAA 2A State Championship game on Mar. 1 to win the school’s first soccer state championship win.
The final score was 1-0, and freshman Emma Bartoli scored the lone goal in the 31st minute, a left-foot strike in the opposing team’s penalty box.
“It felt amazing to see all my teammates running towards me after the goal to celebrate. It was a feeling I couldn’t describe. It also feels surreal to help achieve the first soccer state final in school history,” Bartoli noted.
On Feb. 27th, the girls dramatically won their State Semifinal game against Lakeland Christian.
The Bucs trailed in the second half but tied up the game in the 62nd minute with a penalty scored by senior Vanessa Zito. Eventually, in double extra time, junior Sienna Barboni scored the winning goal with five minutes remaining from the top of the penalty box.
“Although in our regular season games, we may not have always played our best in the past games, especially in this championship, the team worked as hard as possible. We were so proud we made it to this game, and everyone showed up for each other. We wanted the win so badly that everyone put in 110 percent for the entire game,” Barboni emphasized.
“We always remind ourselves before each game, ‘Any Team, Any Day,’ meaning as long as we play the way we know how to, any team is beatable. The state semi-final game had a different vibe in the first half than this one, I feel, because we were down 1-0, and this time we were up 1-0. We played more defensively this game than last game because of this. Overall, the atmosphere was surreal. Winning the last game of my 15-year-long soccer career is an unexplainable feeling, and making school history is just that much better,” Zito explains.
Along with Zito, the seniors on the team are going home victorious from their final high school soccer game.
“It feels great to win the state championship, and it meant a lot more because it is my last game as a Buccaneer. I am going to miss the team, but there couldn’t be a better ending for this,” senior Gabriella Gambale shared.
“It feels amazing to end this season and my soccer career with a state championship. I’ve been playing with these girls my whole life, and I couldn’t ask for a better team to play with. They put in so much hard work into this season, and no group of girls deserves more than this,” senior Sam Woods added.
Head Coach Hillary Carney is nothing but proud of the girls for the work they put in.
“This post season has been very special. The team really turned a corner at the start of the new year. I believe our last loss was on Senior Night against Boca High, and then we made the push into postseason and the girls never looked back. They never quit and they continued to push and win games that many people counted us out of,” Coach Carney recalled.
The girls have superstitions that junior Kenna Kujawa believes were the secret success to their Cinderella run in the playoffs.
“Our team has a couple of amazing pregame rituals, such as listening to the same song as we walk out on the field. We also have a plant named Phil that attends all our home games. I think these and the rest of our pregame rituals definitely bring spirit to our team. They give us something to bond over and something to look forward to. Our team got closer this year than ever with our pregame rituals, which was a factor in our big run in the playoffs,” Kujawa said.
The team will look very different next year. Five seniors are leaving, and four are in the starting lineup.
“Looking ahead to next season, we will lose several key players, but have a really strong roster returning with the majority of starters returning. The goals at the beginning of the season will help dictate the mindset of how to approach our season. Our rising seniors are going to be great leaders coming off of an amazing season this year,” Coach Carney proclaimed.
