Florida High girls soccer boast young, confident roster, beat Maclay | Tuesday preps roundup

Even Mother Nature can't slow down Florida High girl's soccer.

The Seminoles are off to a 3-0 start after beating Maclay 4-1 on a rainy, windy Tuesday night. Scoring 16 goals in the opening three games of the season, Florida High's offense is free-scoring, and the contributions are coming from all over the field with a different goal scorer getting on the stat sheet in each game.

With a varsity roster composed of nine middle schoolers, four underclassmen, three freshmen and one sophomore, the Seminoles are one of the Big Bends youngest teams. Despite that, Florida High head coach Victoria Sachs isn't worried about the youth, saying the expectations remain the same from the middle school program all the way to varsity play.

"We don't care what age you are," Sachs said. "The girls know that, and the younger ones, they fight and they believe if they put in the work off the field, so long as they can compete on the field, I'm going to play them every single second."

In Tuesday night's game against the Marauders, eighth grader Morgan Johnston scored the game's first two goals, with fellow eighth grader Gabriella Jeune providing the assist on the match opener. Freshman Neliana Flury and junior Ivy Carlson scored the game's other goals, with Flury burying a penalty and Carlson scoring from distance for the game's only second-half goal.

Sachs feels the high-scoring ability of her team is the culmination of the work the Seminoles put in over the off-season, building off the foundations of last year's team as Florida High continues to put the ball in the back of the net.

"It's a great patch of confidence but absolutely it comes from the offseason, we did a lot of training," Sachs said. "The girls had been training hard. This is something that we've been carrying over from the season prior. We only lost four seniors last year, and the girls have been working on building on this [offensive output]."

With the Seminoles off to a fast start to life in 2023, Sachs wants her team to keep working towards the goal of making the final four. Despite it being early in the year, Sachs expects that Florida High will play to those expectations in every game.

For this year's Seminoles team to make school history, it will need to get over the regional roadblock it has run into in the past. Sachs knows those rounds are where she wants her team to be, and if they stick to the game plan and play consistent soccer, she thinks this group can do something special.

"The goal is to get out of the final four," Sachs said. "We've never made it past the final eight. We lose, unfortunately, every single year. We're going to the final four this year, and that's the goal every year, get to the final four."

Tuesday Prep Roundup

Golf: 1A State Championships round 1, Girls: Ellie Riner, Maclay, 19th place +3. Boys round 1: , Jack Cook, Maclay, 25th +4, Payton Cowhey, Florida High 35th +5.

Girls Soccer: Taylor County 6-1 Lafayette, Jefferson County 6-4 Rickards, Chiles 6-0 Leon, Wakulla 2-0 Port St. Joe.

Boys Soccer: Taylor County 4-2 Lafayette

Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida High girls soccer beat Maclay 4-1, boast young, confident squad