Aquinas’ first trip to girls’ soccer state final four since 2017 ends with blowout loss

It’s one thing to pull off a mild upset of Lourdes in a regional final.

But asking the St. Thomas Aquinas girls soccer team to pull off an upset of No. 1 state ranked and No. 1 nationally-ranked Ponte Vedra? That was too much of an ask.

Way too much.

Having played the role so many times in past years of traveling to the state final four as the favorite, the tables were completely switched on St. Thomas this time around as the Raiders were the prohibitive underdog and Ponte Vedra left little doubt who the superior team was on this day.

The Sharks dominated from start to finish, decisively beating the Raiders 5-1 in a 6A state semifinal contest on Wednesday afternoon at Spec Martin Stadium. Now 21-1-1, Ponte Vedra will go for its fourth state title and first since 2021 when it takes on Tarpon Springs East Lake in the championship game on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Making their first final four appearance since winning a record 15th state title in 2017, the Raiders (13-5-2) were hoping to make it 16 but were never in it from the opening whistle as the Sharks scored twice in the first 10 minutes to quickly go up 2-0.

“We certainly knew what we were up against with this team today and it was a rough day for us,” Aquinas coach Kim Faulkner said. “I thought we might come out a little flat and the quick goal against really put us in spot where we felt like be had to battle from behind. Their counter attack was amazing and we were having a hard time connecting but of course sometimes your opponent can be a reason for that. They’re the number one team in the country for a reason.”

The quick goal Faulkner referred to came just three minutes in when Aquinas defender Regan Riddle fouled Alijah Joseph inside the penalty box and Sean Pena converted the penalty kick.

Seven minutes later, Joseph made a perfect crossing pass in front of the net to JoJo Davila-Richardson who easily beat St. Thomas keeper Camryn McEwen to make it 2-0.

Fourteen minutes before halftime, it was Pena returning the favor to Joseph feeding her a perfect ball down low and it was 3-0.

Doing the math, the issue was pretty much decided at that point as the mountain the Raiders had to climb at that moment was to score three goals on a team that had given up only nine all season and never more than two in a single game.

The Sharks drove one more nail in just 30 seconds before halftime when Joseph scored her second goal off an assist from Benjamin Gonzalez. It was 4-0 as the Raiders trudged off to the corner of the field at halftime with shoulders slumped and heads down.

To their credit, they put their heads back up and came out battling in the second half, more or less controlling the action even though it was apparent that Ponte Vedra, content with the big lead, played a more conservative, possession-style attack.

The Raiders then found the back of the net with 22 minutes left when senior captain Genesis Hernandez scored off an assist from Madison McKeon.

“We got down two goals scored really quickly and that’s hard in any soccer game let alone when you’re going up against a team like that,” Hernandez said. “Some girls had their heads down at halftime but we knew we needed to keep pushing even though we weren’t going to get the result we wanted. I wish we couldn’t played the first half the way we played the second half.”

Ponte Vedra wrapped up the scoring with just under four minutes left when Joseph got a deep ball off a free kick down in front of McEwen and headed it over her head to finish her day with a hat trick.

“We just tried to go straight up and play them the way we’ve been playing most teams all season with possession style and they were just a little better than us,” Faulkner said. “They got to the ball quicker, won just about every first and second balls. When you don’t win the ball, you’re playing reactive instead of proactive. Today was a tough draw. But we were back up at state for the first time since 2017 and back where St. Thomas girls soccer need to be competing at the highest level.”