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District girls soccer: Academy of the Holy Names, Berkeley Prep move on

 
Berkeley Prep's Ellie Laxer (right) gets hugged by teamate Madeline Ide after scoring her teams first goal against CCC during district girls soccer Class 2A, District 9 semifinals at Clearwater Central Catholic Wednesday night 101/18/2017.
Berkeley Prep's Ellie Laxer (right) gets hugged by teamate Madeline Ide after scoring her teams first goal against CCC during district girls soccer Class 2A, District 9 semifinals at Clearwater Central Catholic Wednesday night 101/18/2017.
Published Jan. 19, 2017

CLEARWATER — It will be an all-Hillsborough final in Class 2A, District 9. Top seed Academy of the Holy Names needed only 60 minutes to defeat Tampa Prep 8-0 in Wednesday's first girls soccer semifinal. Third seed Berkeley Prep needed to work much harder to beat second seed Clearwater Central Catholic 3-0 in the second semifinal.

AHN (13-2-2) plays Berkeley Prep (14-5-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at CCC. In the regular-season meeting between the schools, AHN won 2-1.

The most competitive game of the evening was the second. Berkeley Prep had several chances in the first half and finally broke through in the 35th minute. The Bucs earned a free kick about 30 yards from goal on the left side of the field. Ellie Laxer took the shot and lined a ball into the upper-left corner.

"As soon as it left my foot, I knew it was going straight in," Laxer said. "There's just that feeling when it leaves your foot. It was really crucial for us to get that first goal because it brought up our intensity."

The Bucs spent most of the second half on CCC's side of the field. After a few near misses, MaKenzie Martin converted in the 62nd minute. An attempted clearance by the Marauders wound up at the foot of Sarah Sbar 35 yards from goal. Sbar sent a grounder toward goal, and Martin redirected it past keeper Gretta Ciampini to make it 2-0.

It became 3-0 in the final minute when Makayla Kent scored on a curling right-footer from the left corner and went into the right side of the goal.

"We wanted to keep the pressure on them because one goal is not always going to win it," said Bucs coach Ken Roberts. "We played them earlier in the year and were up two and lost by a goal. That also helped with the kids' frame of mind because they didn't want to do that again."

Berkeley Prep kept CCC away from the goal for much of the second half to secure the shutout. One threat came in the final four minutes when a Marauders shot was kicked out of the goal by Laxer just before the ball crossed the line. CCC (9-6) was forced to play without three starters, including top scorer Shannon Greenwood, because of injuries.

AHN wasted little time in its semifinal against Tampa Prep (5-7-1). It took only 59 seconds to score the first goal, and from there the Jaguars poured it on. They scored four goals in the first half and four more in the first 10 minutes of the second. Lauren Dingle, Hannah Menendez and Caroline Lamoreux each scored twice. Gabrielle Tuccio scored in the first half, and Blakely Byrd scored in the second to round out the scoring.

"We wanted to make sure we were focused because this is the playoffs," said AHN coach Kareem Escayg. "It's like any given Sunday. Anything can happen. We wanted to start off strong, and I'm very happy with the way they played. They didn't act like they were the team to beat. They played their game."