Archbishop McCarthy’s quest for a perfect season ends in Class 4A title match loss
All year long, as they rolled through an undefeated and untied season, the Archbishop McCarthy girls’ soccer team — , ranked in the top five in the nation in three polls — knew there would always be one obstacle standing between them and a coveted state championship.
Montverde Academy.
That’s because the Eagles were also ranked in the top five nationally in those same polls (USA Today, Max Preps, Top Drawer Soccer), were the defending state champions, a team that had given up just two goals all season and had not lost or been tied since December 15, 2017.
That final hurdle proved to be too much to overcome for the Mavericks as they dropped a tough 1-0 decision to the Eagles in the Class 4A state championship Friday afternoon at Spec Martin Stadium.
With both teams entering the game with a combined 47-0-0 record, it is believed to be the first ever girls’ soccer state title game between two undefeated, untied teams.
“It’s frustrating because we might be the two best teams in the state and it’s a shame one of us had to lose,” said McCarthy head coach Mike Sica. “You had two real quality talented teams who just happened to be in the same classification and they just turned out to be one goal better.”
Truth be told, it didn’t even feel like a one-goal game as Montverde (23-0) pretty much controlled the game from the start, getting more quality chances while McCarthy (25-1) struggled to get anything going offensively. The Mavericks finished with just four shots on goal.
Had it not been for some tremendous saves by freshman goalkeeper Isa Quinterro, the Mavericks could have found themselves behind much earlier.
As it was, the game was scoreless as it approached the second-half water break when Quinterro finally faced a shot she couldn’t save.
Montverde forward Isabella Flanigan beat Maverick defenders down the right side and cut in where Quniterro went out to meet her. But Flanigan managed to flick it left to Jody Brown.
Brown, a member of the Jamaican Senior National Team who could be playing in the Olympics in 2020, easily knocked it home putting the Eagles up with 20:37 left.
Perhaps McCarthy’s best chance all game came two minutes later when Nadia Colon, off a set piece direct kick from the side, lofted a perfect ball in front of the net that Jordyn Pitter managed to get a clean head on. But her shot was too high, just barely going over the crossbar.
McCarthy spent the last 18 minutes continuing to be frustrated as Montverde displayed impressive ball control, passing station-to-station, keeping Maverick players chasing down to gain possession.
“They really know how to connect their passes and we were forced to do a lot of chasing and it was definitely frustrating,” said Pitter, a junior and UCF commit who will be back for one more season. “We definitely brought it today but they’re good too and they brought it as well and just managed to find the net once and we didn’t.
“I’m still proud of my teammates and we plan on getting back here next year. I have no intention of accepting a runner-up trophy or runner-up medals. We’re not going to be the ones on the ground, we’re going to be the ones holding up that championship trophy and getting those rings.”
Said Sica: We just weren’t winning enough balls early on which made it tough as they did a great job of just keeping the ball from us and we spent a lot of energy trying to win it back and that tends to wear you down. I told the girls (after the game) to hold their heads up high. For the longest time this program was just trying to win a district title and now the bar has been set high enough around here that we talk about state championships instead.”