The prep winter sports postseason officially got underway this past week, with district events featuring girls soccer and girls weightlifting. Friday night brought a huge breakthrough for the Central girls soccer team, as the Lady Bears won a district championship for the first time since 1998.
The Lady Bears, the top seed and host of the Class 2A, District 6 Tournament, defeated Ocala-Trinity Catholic on Wednesday, 7-2, before defeating The Villages in the final two days later, 3-2. “We practiced the other night and we took a survey of my team, and only three girls had been born since that (last district title),” Central head coach Kenneth Brening said. “So most of them were not in existence when the last district championship (was won). So we’re real proud, real proud. They’ve played hard, played well. Feels good, feels real good.
“This game, I don’t think we were up to par all the way. You’re going to have sloppy games, but that’s where we’ve trained them throughout the season to work through that. You’re not going to have great warmups, you’re not going to have great games, but don’t have meltdowns. Put together what you have. I don’t feel like it was a great game, I feel like we had a better game against Trinity Catholic Wednesday, but we were able to get through it today.”
Against The Villages (12-5-1), the Lady Bears (15-2-3) got on the board within the first seven minutes thanks to the county’s leading scorer, senior forward Emily York. York scored on a long kick off a throw-in by Grace McEnerney, kicking the ball over the head of the Lady Buffaloes’ keeper into the back of the net. The Villages tied it in the 25th minute on a penalty kick by Braylyn Yarish, but a little over five minutes later McEnerney scored on another boot from well outside the box on a breakaway, assisted on a throw-in by Mya Robinette.
“We watched them play the game before and we figured their weakness was outside. So we told Emily York, we told Grace, ‘Their keeper plays out,’” Brening said. “Emily’s was just a great goal, the keeper was in, it was high. McEnerney’s goal, we knew the keeper cheated out. So we’re going to keep her off and that’s when Grace took advantage of her. She took a run, saw the keeper off, sent it over the top.”
With under two minutes to go in the half, York tacked on a second goal, scoring when Gabrielle Custodio’s corner kick deflected off the 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.”
Kyra Blankenship scored off a rebound as less than five minutes remained to cut the deficit to one, but Central held on for the victory and will host Gainesville-P.K. Yonge in Thursday’s regional quarterfinals at 7 p.m. It’s the Lady Bears’ first trip to regionals in 11 years, and a tremendous turnaround for a team that won a combined 10 games the previous three seasons under Brening.
“A lot of work, a lot of second-guessing myself,” Brening said. “When you’re getting pushed down and stomped on and everything, you’ve got to stay positive. I hope the girls take this life lesson. As ninth-graders they came into this program, we took over from a guy that only had 10 players at their last district game. I hope they’ve learned that you don’t take it by its cover. You can mold it into something good, and we did, we have.”
In the 3A-7 Tournament at Nature Coast, Springstead downed Weeki Wachee on Monday, 3-0, while the Lady Sharks beat Hernando, 4-1. In Wednesday’s semis, Pasco eliminated the Lady Eagles, 5-3, and Wesley Chapel knocked off Nature Coast, 4-1.
On Wednesday, the Nature Coast girls weightlifting team placed first in the 1A-10 meet at South Sumter. The Lady Sharks scored 64 points, well ahead of Lecanto in second at 47. Hernando came in fourth (34), followed by Weeki Wachee in fifth (29), and Central failed to record a team score.
Individual champions for Nature Coast included Jessica Osborne at 110 pounds, with a 105-pound lift in the bench press and a 125 in the clean-and-jerk for a 230 total. Other winners were Victoria Davila at 119 (125-115—240), Ashley Gentz at 129 (165-185—350) and Annelise Rentas at 139 (150-180—330).
Weeki Wachee’s Brooke Spaulding at 154 (135-125—260) and Kelsey Manns at 199 (135-120—255) also finished first in their respective weight classes.
Several more county lifters placed in the top six to earn a spot in next Saturday’s regional meet hosted by Leesburg. Three Springstead girls also made regionals out of the 2A-15 Meet held Wednesday at Mitchell. Sheridan Overa took fifth at 183 (105-95—200), Taylor Whalen came in fourth at 199 (70-70—140) and Melanie Rivera was the runner-up at unlimited (160-125—285).
Springstead’s girls basketball team notched victories over Land O’ Lakes on Tuesday (42-32) and Hudson on Wednesday (55-26) before losing to Mitchell on Friday (63-58). At 13-6, the Lady Eagles have tied the school record for wins in a single season set in 1990-91 and assured their first winning record since 1992-93.
Hernando Christian Academy (12-4) registered a big 2A-4 triumph over Seven Rivers Christian on Thursday, 44-37, to wrap up district play at 6-0. Cayla Phillips scored 15 points and Mary Jackson added 13.
The Nature Coast boys defeated Central on Friday night, moving to 15-5 overall and 11-0 in 5A-7. The Bears dropped to 12-7 overall, 6-5 in the district.
In the final week of the regular season for boys soccer, Nature Coast lost a pair of rugged warmups for the postseason, 2-1 to Sunlake on Monday and 5-3 to Lecanto on Wednesday, falling to 14-4-1.
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.