On Tuesday night, the Springstead Eagles (1-1) blanked the Weeki Wachee Hornets (1-2) to the tune of an 8-0 domination. The Green and Black made the cross-county trip to the Eagles’ Nest, but they were sent packing nearly three-quarters of the way through the match. Head Coach Sarah Bell discussed the composition of her team after their victory.
“This is a whole new team from the team I had last year […] I have a lot of new freshmen coming out. So, I think they did really well. They’re getting the pace of the game and how high school is. They’re learning to work together since it’s kind of a whole new blend of a team […] they came out really strong this game and I was really happy about the showing.”
Her team’s variety of freshmen showed out against Weeki Wachee, with Aaliyah Jackson scoring one, Peyton Crump notching two, and Amanda Soults logging a hat trick on Tuesday. The game’s first ten minutes would be a defensive battle, but the Eagles’ offense was spending the vast majority of the time on the Hornets’ side of the field.
The visitors’ defense would bend until they finally broke under Springstead’s pressure nearly 12 minutes into the game. The next few minutes would prove to be the most critical stretch of the game.
Moments after Soults launched a goal into the left side of the net for the opening score, Weeki’s Adrianna Johnson found a breakaway opportunity that was thwarted by a kick out by the goalkeeper. That play would be the Hornets’ best chance at getting on the board all night.
The floodgates opened less than five minutes later when Ashlyn Clark took a pass from Alisha Soults near the goal and rocketed it in from a short distance before the goalie had a chance to adjust. Less than a minute later, Amanda scored her second goal. Just like that, it was 3-0 Eagles.
The Red, White and Blue would not take much longer to score their next goal when Crump headbutted a shot into the goal off of a Lily Isaksen corner kick. Then, seconds before the half, Soults completed her hat trick to give her squad an insurmountable 5-0 advantage heading into the intermission.
Roughly 30 seconds into the second half, the ball would find its way over the goaltender’s hands and into the net by way of a second Crump score. Jackson and Isaksen would officially put the game away soon after and the home crowd left with a blowout victory with 23 minutes left on the clock.
Despite the seemingly breezy victory, there are many challenges in getting a largely new squad ready for game time early in the season. “It’s a lot of getting to know each other so they can make runs and know each other’s runs and really anticipate where the ball’s going from each other […] Also, as freshmen and a new start, I think it’s really getting the feel of each other,” Coach Bell said.
