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JV girls soccer dominates season Winnie Meyers
C
Reviews Editor
oncussions, fouls, undefeated - three words to sum up the girls’ junior varsity soccer season. After 11 games, the girls remain unbeaten. “It feels really good to be undefeated,” freshman Sydney Stoneback said. “I’m really proud of my team because at first I didn’t think we would be that good.” The girls have dominated 11 straight games, including a blowout 8-0 win against Seminole High School with goals from Stoneback, freshmen Vanessa Davenport, Darby Brooks, Jessicka Birr, Ashlyn Mecabe and junior Emily Darden and assists from sophomores Valerie Hearn, Sophie Hill, Taia Gomez, Nancy Hazelette, Holly Rambi and junior Madeline Bohlen. The skill the girls possess comes with hard work. Weekly, the players have three 90 minute practices that consist of different exercises including running and skill training, and multiple games including possession, pass around and shoot.
“Average practices are usually really hot and since we have 32 players on our team, they’re usually pretty crowded,” Carroll said. These practices pay off and the girls continue to win their games and dominate in the district. “We are a really good team,” Stoneback said. “We can communicate without getting mad at each other, and we just work well together.” While most games for the girls are easily won, this is not the case for one team they have played. In contrast, the game against the Oviedo JV team on Dec. 3 was not as smoothly completed as the games of the past. “Oviedo likes to push a lot, and the refs don’t call it because they’re blind,” Stoneback said. The girls played two games against Oviedo, the first of which they won 2-1 with several fouls called on both sides. The second game ended in a “nasty” tie. “It was going really well and we were up 1-0, and it was a clean game for the most part, except for one person from the Oviedo team,” freshman goalie Bailey Carroll said. “They knocked me out.”
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Within the last ten minutes of the second half, Stoneback scored the first goal of the game. And with three minutes left on the clock, a player from Oviedo in an attempt to score, kicked Carroll in the face. Carroll received a concussion and was evacuated to the hospital in an ambulance. “You don’t know how scary that was for me,” Carroll said. “I just remember laying on the ground and not being able to feel my hands or get up.” Because the game had under five minutes left, it was called, and the girls received their first and only tie, 1-1. While the kick to the face had not counted as a foul, the goal made after it was called fair. Though the game ended rougher than expected, Carroll and other players prefer to play intsense games against difficult teams like Oviedo. “If the team isn’t as skilled, then the game is usually not as exciting because we’re just constantly scoring,” Carroll said. “But if the team is a hard one like Oviedo, then the game is really exciting especially when you win because you can just celebrate that you beat your rivals.”
photo by Jake Arthur
KICKING UP GRASS. Forward Sydney Stoneback controls the ball, looking for a shot against Lake Brantley. The Huskies continue to have a successful undefeated season.