Persistent Cardinal Gibbons breaks through to clinch trip to state final four

Over and over, the Cardinal Gibbons girls peppered the net in the second half.

And over and over, they couldn’t find the back of it.

But the Chiefs were a determined bunch.

Locked in a scoreless tie with NSU University School, it looked like their Region 4-3A final was headed to overtime. But Emma Heim and Mia Conard wanted nothing to do with that. The two executed a brilliant give-and-go from the center of the field before Conard knocked one home with 4:30 left in regulation.

A short time later, after some solid lock-down defense, the clock hit zeroes and Gibbons players stormed to the center of the field to celebrate their 1-0 victory over University School and punch their ticket to the state final four next week at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand. Next up for the Chiefs, (13-5-2) will be Orlando Lake Highland Prep in a 3A state semifinal on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

It marks the first time at the final four for Gibbons since it captured its first state title in 2021. That was followed the last three seasons by frustrating regional losses to Delray Beach American Heritage.

“It’s exciting to be going back,” said long-time Gibbons head coach Margo Flack, soaking wet from not one but two water cooler baths. “I think, there are times when maybe you’re expected to get there and then there are others where maybe it takes time and you have to work hard for it. I think that was this team. None of this happened overnight, the girls put in a lot of work. We suffered a few tough regional losses the last few years so I think that disappointment helped us grow as a team and tonight was the payoff.”

After both teams played a nondescript first half where neither had a single scoring chance, the Chiefs completely dominated the second half, putting constant pressure on NSU goalkeeper Avril Ramirez.

Ramirez was brilliant in front of the net, making numerous great saves that kept the Chiefs frustrated and the game scoreless.

Finally came the big moment for Heim and Conard. On a counterattack, Conard had a wide open field down the middle to move in when she found Heim off to her right with a perfect pass. When Ramirez came out of the net to meet Heim and couldn’t get there in time, she cooly fired back over to her left to a waiting Conard who drilled it into a wide open net.

“We work on this kind of play all the time in practice and it paid off for us tonight,” Conard said. “I didn’t have anybody on me and when I finally drew two players into me, I knew Emma was off to my right and got it over to her for a perfect give and go.”

Heim had a great scoring chance 15 minutes earlier when, off a perfect corner kick, headed the ball past a diving Ramirez but the shot was just slightly over the crossbar.

“I saw the space behind the girl so I cut it back, waited for the keeper to commit my way and got it back to Mia,” Heim said. “What a great feeling when that ball went in. It was also a huge relief because when you dominate a team the way we had been up to that point, you don’t want it to come down to penalty kicks because those are the great equalizer.”

Conard said she and her teammates were beyond frustrated during the second half but also determined.

“That second half? It was very frustrating for sure,” Conard said. “But I believe if we got 20 shots on goal, we were bound to find the back of the net at some point. We clearly had the momentum in the second half and were confident that we’d get it done.”

Asked if she had made any halftime adjustments that led to the sudden domination of her team in the second half, Flack shook her head from side-to-side.

“Not really, we honestly didn’t change anything strategically,” she said. “Maybe we just needed the halftime break to get settled in and just relax. They turned it on in the second half and for whatever reason, we’ve been a second half time all year.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 12:05 AM.