At the end of the night, it was the smallest, youngest player on the field made the biggest play.
Harmony’s freshman Jaydyn Frost – a diminutive freshman striker – found at the ball at her feet directly in front of the goal and tapped it into the left-hand side of the net 21 minutes into the second half to give the Harmony Longhorns a 1-0 win over the Celebration Storm in the District 7A-9 girls soccer championship game Tuesday.
“There weren’t many quality scoring opportunities for either team and most of the game was played between the boxes. Our message to the players was the same all night, stay composed and keep playing hard,” Harmony Coach Scott Marlega said. “As the game went on, I thought we got stronger. It wasn’t a particularly pretty goal. Off a throw in, we win a flick and the smallest player on the field found the ball at her foot in front of the goal and put it in.”
The win propels the Longhorns (13-3) into a Region 3 quarterfinal game Feb. 13; playoff brackets should be announced this week.
“It will be wait-and-see thing for us to see if we get a home game,” Marlega said. “But right now, we’re not worried about that. I am so proud of how this team hung together tonight and won a second straight district championship.”
It was a slow start offensively for both teams with few threatening chances. At 26-minute mark, Celebration’s Ellie Armstrong had a breakaway down the right-hand side, but Harmony goalie Karla Marrero blocked the shot. The rebound went to the other side of the goal, where Ines Nouer eventually won the ball and put a shot on goal but Marrero was up to the challenge again and made the stop.
Harmony’s best opportunity to score came two minutes later, when Machaela Looper got off a hard shot from distance, but Storm Keeper Evelyn Juden made a solid stop to keep the game scoreless.
Celebration got a couple of opportunities early in the second half, sending several through balls into the Harmony box. But each time, Marrero would beat the attacking player to the ball or a Harmony defender would run the play down from behind and sweep the ball out of trouble.
After Frost’s goal, Harmony’s midfielders and forwards dominated possession in the final 20 minutes – keeping the ball mostly in the Celebration end. The Storm got a pair of corner kicks in the final minute – but the Longhorn defenders cleared the ball both times.
“We really young up front, but we have some savvy veterans on the back line and at the midfield and really did a good job keeping the ball at the other end of the field,” Marlega noted.
It was a tough loss for the 12-3 Storm, who came into the tournament as the top district seed.
“Our kids took the loss pretty hard, but I told them after the game the only thing that was important was that they played hard and gave it their all and I can proudly say that is what happened tonight,” Storm Coach Rebecca Camis said. “This team definitely took a step forward this year and so did our program.”
In the last two years Celebration is a combined 26-6, winning the OBC championship last year and making it the district finals in back-to-back seasons. In addition, 51 of the 68 goals scored this year by the Storm came from underclassmen. Add in the fact that the Celebration goaltender Evelyn Juden is just a freshman, and the future appears bright for the Storm, who may get an at-large playoff berth.
It was a fact not on Tuesday night’s opponent.
“I’m really proud of the way we played, but I really want to say Celebration played a great game and Rebecca is doing a great job with that program,” Marlega said. They also have a lot to be proud of.”
District soccer action continues Wednesday, when Celebration’s boys (8-2-2) host Osceola (7-4-1) in their 7A-9 district 9 final. Gateway (13-3-1) will meet top-seeded Horizon (10-3-4) Thursday for the 5A-6 title.
