Cardinal Gibbons’ girls’ soccer team’s state title hopes dashed in lopsided loss

Less than a week after having a blast dumping a pair of water coolers on their coach and celebrating a state final four berth on their home field, the scene was a whole lot more somber Tuesday evening for the Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons girls’ soccer team.

Chiefs coach Margo Flack was not wet from an ice water bath this time. She had her players gathered around her giving them the old season-ending speech before she had wanted.

Gibbons fell behind 11 minutes into the game and were basically never in it after that as they dropped a decisive 4-0 decision to Orlando Lake Highland Prep in a Class 3A state semifinal contest at Spec Martin Stadium.

Lake Highland Prep (15-2-1) qualified for its first state championship game since 2008. The Highlanders will look to win only their second state title and first since 2006 when they take on Boynton Beach Somerset Canyons on Friday at 7 p.m.

“I think it was a combination of us maybe coming out with a little case of nerves and them (LHP) just really playing well and taking it to us,” Flack said. “We knew they were very good on set pieces, we thought we were pretty prepared for that but they were obviously more prepared and they capitalized on them.”

One player Gibbons had absolutely no answer for was Lake Highland Prep forward Lael Hill who finished with two goals and assisted on the other two. She scored her team’s first goal 11 minutes into the game on a header after a perfect corner kick from teammate Rory Brown and then assisted on a second goal by Lara Almeida with 17:18 left in the first half putting Gibbons (13-6-2) in a 2-0 halftime hole.

The Chiefs did not record a single shot on goal in the first half, finished with just two in the entire game and those came after the result of the contest was no longer in doubt.

Flack dug down deep to try and give it her best halftime speech but to no avail. Just four minutes into the second half, the Highlanders were awarded another corner kick which bounced around loose in front of the net before Hill got a head on it and Riley Bassin knocked it home.

It was 3-0 and the Chiefs were done. Lake Highland Prep then started executing a perfect plan of possession keep away, dominating time of possession before Hill broke loose with just less than 10 minutes left to score her team’s final goal.

“Things started off slow and once they scored early on us, we started getting frustrated,” junior forward Caroline Findley said. “Defensively they were just really moving the ball around effectively, very calm on the ball and able to move it around and keep us from really getting into any kind of offensive rhythm. We have to be realistic, they were the better team today and we’ll have to live with that.”

Despite the decisive loss, Findley said she’s still proud of her team’s effort and what they got done this year.

“We still pushed through to the end and kept working which was good,” Findley said. “We came all this way and personally I didn’t think we’d make it to state this season so as far as I’m concerned we overachieved this year. I’m a junior so I’ve got one more year and I’d like to get back up here again next year and maybe get a different result.”

Flack, now in her 22nd year heading up the program, was hoping to bring the Chiefs their second state title, having won its first in 2021.

“You never make any apologies for getting here and not winning,” Flack said. “It’s not easy to get here. Postseason regionals are anyone’s game and we had to fight hard to get through. We won some tough games, beat some good opponents and I’m really proud of the girls.”