Lady Seahawks soccer ties Seminoles, falls to St. Joe

The Lady Seahawks soccer team played two games last week, falling to rival Port St. Joe 6-1 and tying Florida High 2-2. The Lady Tiger Sharks were able to get the best of us again, while the Lady Seminoles gave us another tie.

St Joe’s skill players controlled the Dec. 14 game at Franklin County High School, moving through our defense at will leading to a 6-0 advantage. We were, however, able to get on the board in the second half with a Maggie Langston goal off a corner kick from Megan Newell. Their program is markedly ahead of ours, but the gap will be closed.

As we nearly wind up our first season, these Lady Seahawks have improved drastically. The key now will be developing our skills in the off-season, as well as learning to play with more intensity. Winning is a learned behavior, and we just have not learned to compete to win quite yet. In the future when we are ahead of a team 2-0, as we were against Florida High, we will learn how to shut the door and deny any sort of comeback.

Those game-tying goals came with under five minutes to play, forcing a tie in a game we should have won. From the start of the Dec. 15 Florida High game in Eastpoint, we took control of the contest, but just weren’t able to finish all of our attacks down the stretch. Newell scored on a breakaway in the first half and netted a penalty kick in the second half to complete the scoring for the Lady Seahawks.

I felt we had great offensive play from the mid-fielders, which has been somewhat of a weakness this season. Megan McClain has stepped up her game the last two contests to help control the middle of the field, and Jessica Shields played very well on the outside-midfield.

Our defense, anchored by Brianna Whittington, Emmy Norris and Sami Coulter, was stingy against the Lady Seminoles, but was weakened when Sami left the game with a minor knee injury. Goalkeeper Emily Hatfield played tough soccer all night, making some unbelievable saves among her 14 total saves.

We will try to improve our effort and the results in our final two matches of the season. We travel to Leon on Monday, Jan. 11, and will host Marianna on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

Kelli Maggio, a member of the University of Mobile Lady Rams undefeated 1997 national champion soccer team, coaches the Lady Seahawks soccer team.