Saturday, October 31, 2009

KEY WEST -- It was a bittersweet night for the Key West High girls' soccer team in the Preseason Classic at Tommy Roberts Memorial Field.

In the opening match, the Lady Conchs squeaked past Marathon, 3-2, but a very tired Key West team lost to Westminster Christian, 5-0, in the nightcap.

Nonetheless, Key West coach Scott Paul could not have been happier with his young team.

"Regardless of the score, I told the girls I've never been more proud of them," Paul said. "To play a team like Westminster with one substitute was impressive. Even though they were running on empty you never saw one girl quit out there. They could have easily stopped playing -- they have no idea of their potential. We think we are going to absolutely crush some people along the way. You give us a fresh set of legs and a keeper with some more time on the ball, but it won't be 5-0 next time."

In the opener, Key West came out strong on a very young Marathon squad netting all three goals in the first half.

At the 12 minute mark, Jennifer Barcenas blasted a shot from 30 yards out, which sailed over Dolphins keeper Mary Ellen Petraska for a 1-0 lead. Just over two minutes later, Robyn DeRoche sliced the ball past Petraska with a defender in her back pocket and a 2-0 Key West lead. The Lady Conchs went up 3-0 at the 27:51 mark off a corner kick finished by Jasmine Jones.

Key West looked very confident for the start of the second half as if they were going to breeze to an easy win over Marathon, but the Lady Dolphins woke up to take control of the game behind the strong play of Jasmine De La Cruz and sophomore forward Katie Landry.

In a three-minute span, Landry scored a pair of goals, the first in the 60th minute on a nice shot past Key West goalie Jessica Bodmer. At the 63:14 mark, Kelly Struyf placed the ball in front of the goal on a free kick and Landry eased the ball past Bodmer for the score.

Marathon Coach Lynn Landry said they were sluggish in the first half, but was really proud of their second half efforts.

"Key West always fields a very strong, physical team. It does not matter if they are having an up or down year," Landry said. "In the first half it took us a while to get into what we were doing, but in the second half we settled down. It was night and day. We had more second-half opportunities than they did, we just could not put it in the goal. It was a good game."

In game two, Westminster Christian came out fired up against a very tired Key West squad, scoring just four minutes into the game. The Conchs played strong defense but could not get anything going on offense. The Warriors netted the ball in the 25th minute for a 2-0 halftime lead.

Beginning at the 71:04 mark, Westminster Christian scored three goals in an eight-minute span to put the game away.

"We played Westminster with heart. They gave and gave and gave. If a team has heart, we can teach the rest," the coach said.

Against Marathon, Paul said it was exactly the game he expected.

"Neither team likes to lose. The level of play and physicality is what you expect from a rivalry with Marathon," he said. "I don't care what kind of shape you're in or think you're in, with this heat and the emotion of an entire school day, the rivalry and all, they expended a lot of emotional energy today. We don't have a ton of subs so everyone needs to learn to play and play a lot. You've got to learn to run a lot and play efficiently.

"I'm so glad it played out the way it did. Neither team had to play an overly dominant team or an overly weak team. It was two evenly matched teams."

rcooke@keysnews.com