BROOKSVILLE – Over her first three prep seasons, Central senior Emily York had more goals (12) than victories (10). So yes, this 2015-16 soccer campaign has represented quite the transformation for York and her teammates. On Friday night on their own home pitch, York scored twice to lead the Lady Bears to a 3-2 victory over The Villages in the Class 2A, District 6 Tournament title game.
Central, a team that hadn’t won a district since 1998, hadn’t advanced to regionals since 2005 and hadn’t even won a district tournament contest going back to 2007, celebrated with a championship trophy. “It feels amazing,” York said. “There’s been a group of us that’s been here since freshman year and we’ve been working for it. It feels great to finally pull out a win and a district championship. It feels awesome.
“This school doesn’t get a lot of recognition I don’t think. Finally bringing home a district title, it’s awesome. It feels good for the school, it feels good for us, it feels amazing.”
Much as the Lady Bears (15-2-3) have reversed their fortunes, so, too, has York. A former defender, she has morphed into the county’s top scorer with 34 goals and 16 assists.
“I’ve always been a defender,” York said. “Last year I started at midfield at Central. So then once I came to play forward, I wasn’t expecting to score as many goals as I did. It feels awesome coming as a defender, coming up to play forward and scoring 34 goals.
“It’s been everyone else. Everyone else has helped me. Our (assistant) coach, Amy (Ellis), she told us that I play a target player. So they’re told to find my feet and I feed off of everyone else. So it’s everyone else, it’s everyone on the team.”
It’s been an admittedly “crazy” change of pace for York, who has played competitively from the age of 3 and always found herself on defense. “Since ninth grade, she has been one of my dominant players and grooming her to this point,” Central head coach Kenneth Brening said. “It’s just getting them knowing they can do it. I knew she could. She has the talent, and she was able to execute it on the field.
“Emily brings leadership to us and the girls feed off of her very much so. She’s played competitive ball, too, her whole life, so she has the skill from her competitive league to be able to put the ball in the net. So we focused and we went with one forward this year. She was called the target player and I knew. I set out this year, I told her, ‘You will have 25 goals this season. It will not be successful if you don’t have 25 goals.’ She did. She did and she did well.”
So well that she may have been the county’s best player all season, battling Nature Coast’s Chelsea Reid and Springstead’s Samantha Betters for top scoring honors. The Lady Bears went 4-1-1 in county play, the lone loss coming just before Thanksgiving at Nature Coast with York sidelined due to injury.
In the 2A-6 semifinal, a 7-2 win Wednesday night over Ocala-Trinity Catholic, York scored twice and added two assists. Then came Friday’s contest, in which she scored on a long kick seven minutes in, then cashed in just before halftime when Gabrielle Custodio’s corner kick deflected off The Villages’ keeper.
“The second one was off of the corner kick, from Gabby’s kick. I’ve been trained to do that since I was a little kid. Follow those shots off of corner kicks, and that finally happened,” York said. “And the first one, I knew that the keeper played up high. So I just shot and kind of hoped for the best.
“I think that (first goal) helped everyone out a lot. It was 0-0, so once we scored one it got the momentum going. I don’t think we played the best game that we’ve ever played, but a win’s a win.”
Like most top prep athletes, York has ambition to play in college. However, she confesses she got off to a late start in searching out schools, and hasn’t drawn much attention. This season’s stats figure to boost her profile. Meanwhile, the Lady Bears are headed to regionals for the first time in 11 years, and will host a quarterfinal on Thursday at 7 p.m. For York, the job is not yet finished.
“We’re just looking to keep the momentum,” York said. “I’m just trying to keep the momentum, keep everyone’s spirits high. Keep everyone happy. Obviously we won a district title, but we have to move on to the next game. We’re just going to have to.
“I want to do more. It’d be awesome if we could do more. But I’m happy with a district title.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.