Ransom Everglades’ girls’ soccer team’s state final four debut ends in defeat
They traveled to the state final four as the No. 1 seed with hopes of bringing back the program’s first state title. But instead, the Ransom-Everglades girls soccer team won’t even be hanging around for Saturday’s championship game.
The top-seeded Raiders took on No. 4 Episcopal Academy of Jacksonville on Thursday evening and, after taking an early lead, saw everything go south from there in a 3-1 loss in a Class 2A state semifinal at Spec Martin Stadium.
So much for seeding.
Episcopal (14-5-3) advances to the state title game for the first time in program history and will take on Palm Beach Gardens Benjamin on Saturday at 7 p.m.
It ended a brutal week for Miami-Dade and Broward boys and girls soccer teams in Classes 3A-1A as all six which traveled to DeLand and lost their respective semifinals.
It also marked the first time since 2010 that only one South Florida team (boys and girls combined) brought home a state title, that being the Plantation American Heritage girls last week in Class 4A.
“I felt like we pretty much dominated with the ball, especially early on when we took the lead,” Ransom Everglades coach Antonio Boada said. “But you make a couple of mistakes in the box, we give them a couple of PKs, miss a PK of our own, the ball goes off our keepers hands into the net and that’s what can happen sometimes – it’s soccer – it’s part of the game. Sometimes the better team doesn’t necessarily win.”
Boada referred to his team’s early start which saw the Raiders (14-5-3) pretty much control possession and enjoy a few scoring opportunities.
They finally saw one of those chances pay off when forward Johanna James beat the Episcopal defense down the right side, got the corner turned and fired a perfect crossing pass to Charlie Jafee. Jafee then headed it past Episcopal keeper Ava Galani and the Raiders had a 1-0 lead.
But with just under 10 minutes left in the first half, the tone of the game changed. That’s when RE’s Olivia Geller fouled an Episcopal player in the box and Rivers Carney converted the penalty kick tying the game at halftime. The key swing moment in the game came with 27 minutes left. That’s when it appeared the Raiders were going to retake the lead when Episcopal was called for a hand ball in the box awarding Ransom a penalty kick.
But when Ransom’s Natalia Gupta fired toward the bottom left of the net, Galani guessed correctly, diving to her right to make the save keeping the game tied at one.
Just two minutes later, Episcopal’s Lila Rinalli line up a free kick from 40 yards away. A long, high shot was headed for Ransom goalkeeper Addison Pollock who jumped up to catch it but the ball bounced off her hands into the net putting the Raiders behind 2-1 with 25:30 left.
The Raiders shifted into desperation mode but by now the Eagles had the momentum and were playing lockdown defense keeping Ransom from any real quality chances. With 6:36 left, Ransom’s Anna Lavernia fouled an Episcopal player in the box and when Charlotte Ritter converted the PK, that pretty much ended the issue.
“Things just happen sometimes,” said James, who is only a junior will return for one more season. “We worked really hard this season, played for each other and went really far. Things just didn’t go our way tonight but next year we’re going to get back up here again and try to right a wrong.”
Said Boada: “We had a great season and made great strides as a program making it to state for the first time. We’ve got a solid core coming back so we will continue working. It’s part of life. We were supposed to be winners tonight but life is like that. We didn’t get it done. You learn from it and move on.”