Here's why Lakeland Christian girls soccer has won 4 straight state titles

LAKELAND — The dynasty continued on Friday. Perhaps getting to state every year and not winning isn’t a true dynasty, but winning four in a row certainly is. Lakeland Christian’s victory over Shorecrest Prep put the program — although it already might have already been there — on another level, a level where you just say the school and the sport and knowledgable fans just know.

For instance: Bartow softball. Two words and you’re just nodding your head because of you understand that the Yellow Jackets have simply established themselves on a level just above the typical strong program. For Bartow softball, that occurred during its run of seven titles in 10 years, including five in a row.

Lakeland football: The most state titles by a public school in football and two national titles certainly put the program on an elite level.

For the Lakeland Christian girls soccer team, that has occurred over the past four seasons as the titles began piling up.

Moving on up: How Lakeland Christian girls soccer became a dynasty under Jason Streets

Four-peat complete: Lakeland Christian wins another 2A girls soccer state title

So how does a program win four consecutive state titles?

Talent, of course, but that’s just stating the obvious. Follow sports at any level and the list of talented teams that didn’t win a title is lengthy. Pick any of the LCS teams that have won, and they’re filled with some of the best players in the county. This year’s team included players like KJ Straub, Halle Johnson, Mari Carr, Ella Williams, the Carroll sisters, Alyssa and Payton, and goalkeeper MacKenzie Marotz, just to name a few.

So if talent is a given, what else? The cliche is it takes a little luck too, so let’s start there. There’s no doubt the Vikings benefitted from moving up to 3A back when they won their first title. That team was talented enough to beat St. Johns but perhaps trying to win a first state title and beating St. Johns Country Day for the first time would have been asking too much.

On the flip side, some of the LCS teams that lost to St. Johns might have been as talented as the state championship teams but were unlucky in that they faced St. Johns teams that were stronger than the last couple of its teams.

Not having to play St. Johns this year didn’t hurt either, which is not to say the Vikings still wouldn’t have been state champions. You can only beat the team in front of you, and LCS did just that. And there could have been an emotional letdown among the LCS players once St. Johns lost.

“The letdown was my fear once they saw St. Johns had lost,” LCS coach Jason Streets said. “Not that Shorecrest was going to be easy, but St. Johns is St. Johns. They’re a winning tradition. When you go against them, it’s just different.”

He stressed in practice that his players needed to remain focused.

“We talked about remaining humble and respecting what we had to do,” he said.

What else does it take? How about rising to the occasion? The lament of many players and coaches after a championship loss was how they didn’t play their best. In each of the past four state championship games, Lakeland Christian played its best soccer.

The only time over the past four championship games that the Vikings didn’t play their best was about 10- to 12-minute stretch early in the second half of their first title win over American Heritage after the Stallions took a 2-1 lead. Once Ramsey Watkins provided the spark that got them back on track, LCS got a goal from senior star Katie Carnes and up-and-coming stars in sophomores Maddie Lopez and Carly Sabat to go on to win. There hasn’t been a letdown since in any of the championship games.

It’s not just the stars, however. The Vikings have gotten contributions from talented role players like outside defenders Katie Williams and Karis Gibson, who closed out their high school careers playing their best games. Having your best players play their best doesn't hurt. In the win over St. Johns last year, Destinee Carroll clinched player of the year honors with her defensive play, and KJ Straub neutralized one of the best players in the nation.

This year, it was more of the same. Championship teams know how to grind out a win when they’re not at their best like LCS did on the state semis. In the championship game, however, the Vikings were at their best.

“In the semis, I thought we didn’t play well as a team as a whole,” Streets said. “I thought some players didn’t play their best. To win this, everyone has to play their best. My back line was outstanding, I thought the midfield effort was good. Mari and Ella up front played their butt off. KJ was KJ.”

The Vikings played with a blend of fearlessness and confidence, starting with center backs Grace Hames and Halle Johnson, who continually broke up attacks and winning possession before Shorcrest Prep could pose a scoring threat. One steal by Hames negated a Shorecest threat that could have been disaster for the Vikings.

Caroline Morin was a consistent impact player in the midfield, continually winning 50-50 balls. In fact, if there was a theme to the game it was the amount of times an LCS player and a Shorecrest Prep battled one-on-one only to see the LCS player come away with possession.

And fearlessness? The 5-foot-1 Ella Williams went right at much-bigger Shorecrest Prep defender Maddie Needler, getting pounded a number of times and going down once in a big collision, but she never backed down.

That’s the type of play that has been typical during LCS’s four-year run. They put talent, luck and desire into the pot for the championship brew.

Finally, there is that sort of indescribable intangible that certain players bring to the table, a will to win that bleeds into the team as a whole. LCS has had more than one player like that on each team. For instance, Watkins, of course, had it and was put into a position where it paid dividends, but she wasn’t the only player like that on the team.

Remember when Streets said KJ was KJ. That’s what he was talking about. In each of the four years, Straub brought that indescribable will to win to the table, a level of passion and talent that just can’t be easily replaced.

“What do you say when you have a girl in the middle that doesn’t lose,” Streets said. “She just does not want to lose, and that emotional drive is fun. At halftime, she’s getting them going. I can’t imagine this team next year without her leading them.”

So that’s the next challenge for LCS — winning without Straub. The Vikings have had different teams and different challenges in winning each of the first four titles, including beating St. Johns for the first time last year. However, winning it all without Straub could be the toughest challenge yet.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Here's why Lakeland Christian won 4 straight girls soccer state title