Stern tests await OHS, Harmony

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Stern tests await OHS, Harmony

Sports

Thursday, 28 January 2010 01:29

By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer
Osceola and Harmony will make their first-ever regional girls soccer playoff appearances today, but excitement may give way to apprehension as both will be rather longshot underdogs.
As district runners-up, both teams play on the road. The Longhorns (12-3-2) go north to 4A District 5 winner Gainesville Eastside (22-1) at 5 p.m., while the Kowgirls (13-7-2) go south to Lakeland to meet 5A-6 winner George Jenkins (22-0-1) at 7 p.m.
And, it wouldn’t get any easier after that, because wins tonight would likely mean rematches against teams that easily handled them in last week’s district finals.
On Friday, Harmony fell to Eustis, 8-0, in the 4A-6 final, and Osceola lost to Winter Haven, 7-0, in 5A-5.
HHS Coach Stephanie Jones said her team expended a lot of energy beating rival St. Cloud, 3-1, to earn their regional berth.
“Eustis is a phenomenal team and I can’t take anything away from them, but I just don’t think we were ready for the level of play needed for that game,” she said. “This program has never been in a game at that level and our girls were emotionally and physically drained with the tournament and having exams that week.”
The Kowgirls had an equally tough time in their district semifinal, knocking off Lake Wales, 2-1, in overtime on Thursday. They played for the title less than 24 hours later.
OHS Coach Mark Ausherman said that running into a buzzsaw of a team was more responsible for the district final loss rather than any sort of letdown.
“The girls were positive, we just played them three times and they handled us,” he said. “We’re going into (tonight) the same way, and if we get some luck we know that maybe we can win.”
Osceola will go into the Jenkins game hoping to get some space for sophomore Leah Mullins to create some shots. She enters tonight’s game with 55 goals, the fifth-highest season total in county history.
“We’ve accomplished all our goals this season except for one, which was win the district title,” Ausherman said. “And, we had a hand in it, we weren’t spectators, we were in the finals for the first time.”
Jones said her players do not want two losses at the end of the year to define their season.
“I can tell they’re not just happy to be there,” she said. “We’ve talked about playing for redemption, and we need some after Friday. We’ve gone farther than any other girls soccer team at this school.”