WINTER GARDEN ― In sisterly fashion the Auburndale Bloodhounds blew out the Lake Wales Highlanders 5-1 in a Class 5A, District 6 girls soccer semifinal game at Horizon High School.
Auburndale, though, did this in unusual circumstances. Firstly, the game was delayed by an hour due to the Horizon-Gateway game being postponed because of Gateway showing up late. And near the end of the game, Horizon’s lights shut off, leaving the entire soccer stadium pitch black for a mere minute or so.
Still, in one of the colder nights in Florida, no. 2 seed Auburndale prevailed over No. 3 seed Lake Wales, advancing to the district finals for the fourth time in five years thanks to Peyton Battilla and McKenna Battilla — two sisters — even without third-leading goal scorer Madison Houlihan and fourth-leading goal scorer Alaney Hancock, who both didn’ t play because of injury.
Peyton registered three goals, and McKenna notched two goals.
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Auburndale head coach Tawanda Kaseke said he was delighted by what he saw.
“I can’t express how proud and happy I am with the girls because they’ve worked so hard all season,” Kaseke said. “They wanted it, and they showed up for it and it showed. … I’m so proud of them.”
Thanks to an assist from Dylan Fernandez, Peyton scored 11:52 into the game to tie the game at 1-1. She then scored 16:10 into the first half thanks to receiving a nice pass from Devin Thompson, and she would go on to score the final point of the game 20:29 into the second half thanks to an assist from Adrienne Cardona and swerving Lake Wales’ keeper Noah Sparks, setting himself up for a clear shot.
McKenna booted in a score off a rebound 33:45 into the first half, while she then tallied a point 4:26 into the second half thanks to an assist from Cardona.
While Auburndale stayed patient, for the most part, Auburndale was able to work the ball in the Lake Wales’ zone.
Defensively, Newbern, Thompson, Fernandez, among others, paid special attention to dynamic Lake Wales midfielder Lily Borders.
Meanwhile, Lake Wales did its best to stay afloat, especially since the program’s best player and leading goal scorer, senior captain Bailey Dykes, elected to go to the Polk County youth fair — an agriculture fair — which will help her earn money for college. Five Lake Wales players in total were at the youth fair.
The Highlanders scored the first goal of the game thanks to Lily Borders heading in a shot 7:23 into the first half.
But Lake Wales was not able to regain its focus after Peyton’s goal. Seventh-year Lake Wales coach Michael Flood said the players from each team knowing each other well due to playing with each other on other competitive teams adversely impacted the district semifinal game.
“At some point you get in each other’s heads, and after that second goal, they were in our heads a little bit and it took us a little bit to shake it off,” Flood said. “We had a lot of trouble generating offense.”
And the lack of offense meant the Highlanders went home and will prepare for next year. With the team being exceptionally young, Flood will try to restore the program’s dominance. Since the 2012 season, the Highlanders have won 11 or more games nine times.
Auburndale (12-4), the No. 14 teams in Class 5A, will next play Horizon (11-2-2), the No. 13 teams, in the district finals next Wednesday at Horizon High School.
“We just have to stay true to ourselves,” Kaseke said. “What we’ve done has gotten us this far, and we’re not going to change. We’re just going to keep at it.”
6A-6: Lakeland 1, Lake Gibson 0
Lakeland and Lake Gibson battled to the wire in the 6A-6 district semifinals with the Dreadnaughts prevailing. Reese Hughes scored on a penalty kick in the first half for the only goal of the match. Lakeland controlled the game offensively with 10 shots on goal.
Lake Gibson’s defense, led by Jennifer Tagalos and goalkeeper Savannah Davis, kept the Braves in the game until the end.
Lakeland goalkeeper Ashley Jimenez had three saves to earn the shutout. Lakeland will play host to George Jenkins in the district championship game. Jenkins shut out Bartow 2-0 in the other semifinal match to advance.
— Roy Fuoco/The Ledger
4A-10: McKeel 8, Tampa King 0
The Wildcats scored all their goals in the first half to easily dismiss King and advance to the championship match. McKeel will play Holy Names for the district title at 7 pm on Tuesday.
— Roy Fuoco/The Ledger