Eastside’s girl’s soccer team’s remarkable run came to an end Thursday
night at a soggy Citizen’s Field.
Behind three Janitta Levius goals, the Fleming Island Golden Eagles put
away the Rams 5-1 to advance to the Region 1-5A semifinal that will be
played Tuesday against Bartram Trail.
“I think it’s really hard to come
back from two emotional wins against teams that we play all the time,”
Eastside coach Sarah Goldberg said. “The girls put a lot of heart and
energy into that.
“Today, when you get behind an early goal you’ve got to start pushing
kids up and then you end up giving up a couple more. The score doesn’t
really reflect the play.”
Fleming Island dominated the early possessions, finding wide-open
bodies consistently and working the ball through the Rams defense on
countless occasions. It only took the Golden Eagles 30 seconds before
launching their first shot, which was nabbed by Rams’ goal keeper Grace
Chrzanowski in the upper right part of the net. Chrzanowski, who Goldberg
said was under the weather, finished the night with 12 saves.
Just over a minute later, the Golden Eagles ripped their second shot of
the game into the Rams goal to give them a 1-0 lead.
With two minutes left in the first and the Rams already down two goals,
Fleming Island senior midfielder Kameron Stilwell took the ball down the
right side of the field and centered a pass into an Eastside defender. As
the defender attempted to clear the ball it deflected off Levius and into
the Rams’ net.
After another Levius goal, which came just eight minutes into the
second half, the Rams found a spark as they controlled the ball on the
Golden Eagles’ side better and with 30:51 remaining, freshman forward
Sarah Landauer blasted the ball from the top of the box just over the
keeper’s glove and into the net to make it 4-1.
Levius then iced the game when she broke through a pair of Eastside
defenders and sent the ball off Chrzanowski’s left glove and for the
game’s final goal with 18:32 remaining.
“We came away with a win tonight and my girls played hard and they
really wanted it,” Fleming Island coach Darrell Ivey said. “They really
want to face Bartram again.”
Despite the loss, Goldberg said she and her team are proud of this
season’s accomplishments.
“When we asked them to come out and do the best that they could, I
don’t think either (assistant coach) Cherie (Clark) or I could have
imagined that they were going to come out and put together the season that
they have,” she said.
