Celebration gets landmark win for program at home; Harmony goes on the road to extend season
As the temperatures plummeted Thursday night, the soccer action heated up for Osceola County's two girls soccer teams in the Class 7A Region 2 playoffs.
And, thanks to Celebration and Harmony's 2-0 wins over Vero Beach and Windermere, they'll keep burning up fields for another week.
As the lower seeds in the bracket, No. 3 Celebration (16-4) will travel to No. 2 Jupiter (12-6) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, while No. 4 Harmony (16-5) will play at No. 1 seed Lake Nona (12-3-2).
It was the first-ever district girls soccer title for the Storm in school history, and the landmark season continued Thursday with the first regional playoff game at CHS — and the Storm's first win. Goals by Aileen Cure in the 7th minute and Leandra Oliveira in the 30th set the tone and gave Celebration a cushion and edge against the visiting Indians (7-9-2).
"With high school kids, sometimes mindset is always a big factor in something like this," CHS Coach Rebecca Camis said. "The girls really came together and played a solid contest. It helped to play with the lead early."
The first goal came on a set piece and a sophomore connection when Indee Morris served a great corner kick into the box, and defender Alieen Cure, playing up in the attack on the set piece, headed it in for her first goal of the season, and Morris' 14th assist.
Oliveira added breathing room to the lead with a solid strike from 18 yards out to the top left corner of the net. From there, the Storm offered Vero Beach little breathing room and just two shots on goal the final 50 minutes of the match, although goalie Allyson Watt had to make a sprawling save on the last one with nine minutes left in the game to preserve the shutout. Celebration was dominant in the midfield thanks to the efforts of player like freshman Zoe Herrera, who Camis said was her player of the match.
Up in western Orange County, the Longhorns hit the road and took their own shutout victory at Windermere (12-5-2), also thanks to taking an early lead when Gabby Guzman finished off a pass from Machaela Looper in the 19th minute.
Still clinging to that 1-0 lead after halftime, Jada Bloodworth took a pass from Guzman and put it in net in the 55th minute for extra cushion.
HHS Coach Scott Marlega said he was happy to see his team shake off the district final loss to Celebration and play a cohesive game at both ends of the pitch.
"The girls came out focused and hungry to get back into game action and back on their path," he said.
Wins by the locals Wednesday would mean a rematch of their District 7A-7 title game, won last week by Celebration, 2-1, in the regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
