Bishop Kenny tops Santa Fe

ALACHUA — The Santa Fe girls soccer team has proven that it can play from behind.

The Raiders scored three times in the final 17 minutes of last week’s District 3-4A championship match to erase a two-goal deficit to capture the title.

But Santa Fe couldn’t stir up any second-half magic during Thursday night’s Region 1-4A quarterfinal with Jacksonville Bishop Kenny.

The Raiders season came to a close with a 2-0 loss to the Crusaders.

Katie Goodwin and Amanda Terbrueggen each scored for Bishop Kenny, which will travel to Jacksonville Stanton for Tuesday’s regional semifinal. The Crusaders (7-6-3) also handed the Raiders an opening-round and season-ending loss a year ago.

“This year it seems like this team has been a second-half team, they have been a team with a lot of heart and they seem to thrive off of that when we have been behind in several big games and managed to come back,” said Santa Fe first-year coach Erik Nystrom. “I feel like it was a team (Bishop Kenny) we could match up with and a team we could have beaten but it didn’t pan out for tonight.”

In the 13th minute of the match, Nicole Doherty was controlling the ball on the end line and crossed the ball to the middle, where Goodwin knocked it into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.

That was the score at halftime and the second half saw the Raiders (18-8-2) do a better job of controlling possession of the ball. However, Santa Fe couldn’t even the score before Melissa Corso fed Terbrueggen, who was streaking towards the goal. The Bishop Kenny junior drilled a shot just under the cross bar and above the out-stretched arms of Santa Fe goal keeper Taryn Ruess (nine saves). The goal came in the 71st minute and provided the final margin.

The Crusaders did a good job of keeping tabs on Santa Fe standout midfielder Kathleen Murphy, who has 38 goals this season. The North Florida commitment found herself blanketed by several Crusader defenders during most of the evening. The Raiders, who were out-shot 12-7, were also without starting midfielder Naomi Lux (10 goals), who tore her ACL in her left knee in last week’s district-title match.

“I was very ecstatic to have a district title so I told the girls we’ve got our gravy and the rest is is just a second helping,” Nystrom said.