McCarthy girls’ soccer gets its ‘redemption game’ and a spot in the state championship
The sign was up on the locker room wall at the their school earlier in the day and you couldn’t miss it.
“Redemption Night.”
It truly was a night of redemption for the Archbishop McCarthy girls’ soccer team following a 4-1 victory over St. Petersburg on Friday night in a Class 4A state semifinal at Pines Charter High School.
It was nearly a year ago to the day that the Mavericks, leading Estero 4-1 on the road with just 20 minutes left, were well on their way to the state finals before Estero scored four times for a stunning 5-4 win.
“That’s all that has driven these girls for the last 364 days is what happened that night in Estero,” said McCarthy head coach Mike Sica, who watched his No. 1 nationally ranked team (USA Today) remain perfect at 25-0-0. “They are a strong bunch of girls and have showed it as they haven’t lost or tied a game since that night. It was up in our locker room today – the redemption game.”
But if Sica and his girls are going to complete this remarkable season, they have one huge hurdle left.
Awaiting in next week’s Class 4A state championship game at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand will be another perfect team.
Montverde Academy defeated St. John’s Bartram Trail 1-0 in the other semifinal and is also unblemished at 24-0-0 and ranked No 6 in the nation, setting up a monster state championship game on Friday at 1 p.m.
It is believed to be the first-ever girls’ soccer state championship game between two undefeated, untied teams.
But it was in doubt whether it would happen the way things started.
That’s because something happened to the Mavericks that hadn’t happened to them since back in November – they fell behind.
A defensive miscue allowed St. Pete’s Hayden Fredericks to come free with the ball directly in front of the net. She fired it home to put the Green Devils up 1-0 with 16:30 left in the first half.
But if there was any panic on the McCarthy sidelines, it sure didn’t show as it literally took just one minute to tie the game back up. Cassie Lawson drilled a perfect direct kick from 27 yards out into the top left corner of the net.
Five minutes after that, the Mavs took the lead when Devyn Encalada did the same, this one from 24 yards out that glanced off a St. Pete player’s head from the wall in front and just under the crossbar.
“I guess it was just a minute but it seemed like forever to get that equalizer,” said Sica. “We talk all the time to just expect things to go wrong. We practice it and prepare for it. Bus is late, field wet, whatever goes wrong is going to happen and it happened tonight and therefore our girls were ready for it because we responded quickly.”
The second half was a clinic as far as protecting the one-goal lead as solid McCarthy defense kept St. Pete (16-4-1) from getting quality scoring chances.
Finally, Jaden Roberts scored with 8:28 left to give the Mavs a much-needed insurance goal before team captain Sofia Mallardi scored with 1:27 left as the bit McCarthy crowd broke into a frenzy.
“Tonight was so huge,” said Mallardi. “We called this season our redemption season because we were absolutely devastated last year with what happened. We adjusted our strategies and as you can see, after taking the lead in this game, we played much more possession and defensive whereas last year we may have not and tonight we got the result we wanted.”
▪ Class 2A state semifinal: It took nearly the entire game, but Cardinal Gibbons played great defense all night long and scored the goal it needed when the moment arrived.
Amy Bidwell, off a nice pass from Maya Alicea, scored with 5:09 left for the only goal of the game as the host Chiefs punched their ticket to the 2A state title game with a 1-0 victory over Tampa Academy of Holy Names on Friday night.
Gibbons (18-1-4), which lost to Ponte Vedra on penalty kicks 10 years ago in the program’s only other championship game appearance, will take on defending 2A state champion Jacksonville Bolles on Wednesday at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand at 7 p.m.
Goalkeeper Alexis DeVeaux pitched the shutout in front of the net, recording a total of eight saves.