Alessia Saia powers Spanish River girls soccer past Olympic Heights
BOCA RATON – Spanish River girls soccer handed Olympic Heights its first loss on Monday night in a tight 3-2 divisional contest.
Staring down a 1-0 deficit at halftime, courtesy of the Lions’ Emma Gottlieb, the hosting Sharks rebounded – literally – via Alessia Saia tucking away her own deflection on a penalty kick to knot the score just before the halftime whistle.
Monday’s second half action between the two programs saw a back-and-forth roller coaster between the squads, as the Sharks took the lead, lost it, and then retook it in the final moments.
“We’ve done it the hard way every game,” Spanish River head coach Kevin Turner said. “I told them at halftime, I said, ‘when are we going to get tired of digging ourselves a hole?’ We’ve gone behind in every single competitive game we’ve played this year, basically. That’s something we need to fix and clean up, but credit to them that they had the character.”
The craziest goal of the night came off of a wild second-half sequence in which the ball ping-ponged off Spanish River goalkeeper Julianna Bowen three times in fewer than 10 seconds before Rebecca Camara finally slotted the ball past the keeper to tie the game at 2-2.
From then, possession for both squads failed to yield many quality chances down the stretch, but just when the contest seemed destined to end in a draw, Saia, a Notre Dame commit, planted a laser into the back of the net inside two minutes remaining.
The brace brought her team-high goal total up to six and evened the season record at 2-2-1 for the Sharks, propelling the home team to a victory that is certain to ease the bitter taste of a tough 3-2 loss to Stoneman Douglas before the Thanksgiving break.
Certainly, handing an opposing team its first loss is a good feeling, especially when it’s a divisions’ opponent.
“For sure – they’re our neighbors,” Turner said. “You could throw a stone over the turnpike to them, and I’ve known Jim [Cappello] forever. At the end of the year, thereabouts, we’re probably going to see them in districts.”
But while Monday was a step in the right direction for his team, Turner says that the win was merely a symptom of the girls coming together when it mattered.
“If we play together, we’re going to be awfully good,” Turner said. “But we’re still a little ‘me’ before ‘we,’ and we need to be ‘we’ before ‘me.’”
It’s still early – as of Monday’s result, the Sharks have played just five regular season games in the first month or so of the season. But Turner feels that the team is beginning to showcase their potential.
“We haven’t played a lot of matches, but I feel like the matches we have played have been of high quality. This is a group of girls that does not like to lose, and that’s a good thing to have in a competitive sport,” Turner said.
“Sometimes we say we love winning, but I think if you hate the losing, that helps you win a little bit,” he added with a laugh.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Alessia Saia powers Spanish River girls soccer past Olympic Heights
