Lakeland Christian girls find formula to shut out Jupiter Christian in regional semifinals
LAKELAND — An overwhelming strength of Lakeland Christian’s three state championship seasons as a strong defensive back line in front of a top goalkeeper. As the Vikings take aim at reaching the state finals again, defense will again be important, and they appear to be ready for the challenge.
That was evident in Lakeland Christian’s 1-0 victory over Jupiter Christian on Friday night in the Class 2A, Region 2 semifinals. The Vikings faced a speedy, prolific goal scorer and kept her in check.
Jahpetria Charles, an eighth-grader, went into the game with 29 goals in 13 matches, but the Vikings back line led by center backs Halle Johnson and Grace Ham kept her in check.
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“She has a lot of speed and she cut the ball a lot,” Johnson said. “It was hard to defend her, but we just doubled her down with two players and then we got tall and that’s how we defended her. We figured out how she plays.”
Several times, Ham slowed down Charles enough to allow other defenders to close and take the ball.
“She did play play really well,” Johnson said. “She’s really calm on the ball.”
LCS coach Jason Streets said he didn’t want to man-mark Charles but it was important for the Vikings to quickly double team her when she had the ball.
“She put a ton of pressure on us,” Streets said.
It was Lakeland’s Christian’s fifth consecutive shutout and 16th of the season in 24 matches.
It wasn’t a given that the Vikings’ defense would be so strong. Johnson is the only returning starting among the four defenders, and goalkeeper Mackenzie Marotz is also back. Marotz made an outstanding safe late in the first half when she tipped the ball over the crossbar.
Johnson said that the other starters are her age and she’s played with them, so that helped with the transition from last’s year group to this year’s group. The chemistry kept building throughout the season as the Vikings played a strong schedule. This was their fifth one-goal victory.
“At the beginning of the season, players were new so that chemistry wasn't quite there yet, but I think throughout the season and all these games we’ve been through, we definitely built it,” Johnson said.
And it helps that Johnson has remained healthy. She was an impact player since her freshman season but battled ankle injuries the past two seasons.
The play of the defense gave Streets confidence that the one-goal lead would hold up. KJ Straub scored the only goal on a penalty kick in the 26th minute and as the game progressed, Streets moved her back to her regular position of holding mid to help bolster the defense.
“It was a battle,” Streets said. “I knew that going in. This was going to be a tight game. My defense did a very good job in the second half in containing and not getting much.”
On the outside, Kyleigh Coleman consistently won the ball and started the attack the other way.
“Kyleigh on the left played a great game,” Streets said.
The Vikings had several opportunities to add to their total, especially on gone shot by Mari Carr that Jupiter Christian goalkeeper was able to knock away.
Lakeland Christian (20-3-1) will play Geneva (15-2-0) on Wednesday in the regional final. Geneva advanced by defeating Santa Fe Catholic, 1-0
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland Christian blanks Jupiter Christian in girls soccer semifinals
