OCALA — Trinity Catholic breezed into Friday’s regional girls soccer final
match with an 8-0 win over visiting Keystone Heights Tuesday evening in
the 3A-2 semifinals. That was the easy part.
Last season they Celtics became the first county team to reach the
regional final, this year, they want a bit more, especially the seniors.
“Last year we were making history,” said Trinity senior defender Asami
Floyd. “This year we want to make even greater history by going through
the regional final to the final four.”
The Celtics now face Trinity Prep (17-5-3) a 2-1 overtime winner over
last season’s 3A state runner-up, Lake Highland Prep.
“It’s really neat that we’ve advanced every year since I’ve been here.
It would be really cool if we could advance one more time before I
graduate,” said midfielder Loren Bonenclark.
The Celtics controlled the ball for nearly the entire contest and
allowed just one shot from Keystone Heights. The Celtics by comparison,
fired off 10 shots in the mercy-rule shortened match.
“We’ve got to work harder than that. This was an easy team we played
tonight,” said head coach Blendel Elias about advancing past the regional
final.
Katy Phillips already had a hat trick for the Celtics but the fans
wanted more. Phillips nailed a shot from midway between the 18-yard line
and midfield to put the game away in the second half. Phillips now has 31
goals this season. Caitlin Phillips scored twice for the Celtics. County
leader in scoring, Ashley Coley, added two goals in the shutout to put her
season total at 43 going into Friday’s game.
“It’s about time Marion County puts a team in the final four and
hopefully we can do it,” said Trinity assistant coach Wesley Elias, son of
head coach Blendel who saw some holes in the Celtics offense. “We do have
gaps in the midfield we need to close down overall because a lot of the
more competitive teams will see that, identify it and attack down those
holes.”
“We’re gonna have to have a solid back wall,” said Bonenclark of the
regional final. “Solid, solid defense, you can get one goal and hold the
rest of the game if you have good defense.”
According to both the younger Elias and Bonenclark winning Friday means
crisp, quick passes.
“One-two touch with our passes. We have some great midfielders and
great defenders and I think we can do it,” said Bonenclark.
“Let’s limit our touches from three or four touches down to two or one
touch,” said the younger Elias. “Those are the kind of things that are
going to separate the quality teams from the average teams.”
Trinity (22-3-2) will travel to Winter Haven for Friday’s regional
championship game.
