Spartans stunned: Lakeland Christian ends 11-year St. Johns Country Day streak in 2A final

DELAND — Standing by the corner flag of Spec Martin Stadium, Lakeland Christian senior Lily Harrington kept watching, and watching.

"I was like, 'It's curving, it's going, it's going,'" she said, "and then it actually went in."

The ball went in, and Florida soccer's greatest streak went out.

With Harrington's goal direct from a corner kick, and her second off a counterattack barely a minute later, Lakeland Christian ended the longest championship run in Northeast Florida's team ball sport history by defeating St. Johns Country Day 2-1 in Wednesday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A girls soccer final.

The Spartans (20-2-1), ranked fifth in the nation by the United Soccer Coaches, hadn't lost a postseason game since Feb. 4, 2011 against Winter Park Trinity Prep, when their current senior class was in kindergarten.

Despite a last-minute score by center back Cece Nowicki, bringing the Spartans within a goal with 35 seconds left, the historic streak is over at 11 years.

"It's a life lesson," Spartans coach Mike Pickett said. "You're going to do things that are really good and feel like you deserve something, and someone's going to snatch it right out of your jaws."

Ending the run was a Vikings (21-2-2) team with 13 seniors, a team that now holds its own three-year title streak after moving down from Class 3A last year.

"To beat the unbeatable," Lakeland Christian coach Jason Streets said, "I've got no words. I'm just shocked and so happy."

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BEND IT LIKE HARRINGTON

Harrington said she could remember one other time this season when she scored direct from a corner kick, among the rarest plays in soccer at any level.

With fewer than 10 minutes remaining in a 0-0 game, she got her chance after forward Maddie Lopez raced up the right sideline and crossed the ball off a Spartans defender for a corner.

Lopez went down awkwardly on the play and wasn't able to take the corner, so Streets called Harrington to strike the corner from what he described as her "sweet spot."

On a windy DeLand afternoon, the ball appeared to hang up in the breeze, swirling past Spartans keeper Roxy Mathews and nestling just inside the opposite post.

"I've been practicing them a lot, and as soon as I hit it, I just kind of knew," Harrington said.

Harrington added a vital insurance goal moments afterward, finishing off a counterattack after Mathews had parried Carly Sabat's shot on the break.

VIKINGS' WALL HOLDS FIRM

For 70 minutes, St. Johns threw attack after attack at the Lakeland Christian defense. On play after play, the Vikings stood firm in a specially-modified three-defender system, commanded by resolute senior center back Destinee Carroll, while Ori Gotauco and K.J. Straub led the chase pack in the Lakeland Christian midfield.

"They'd been scoring so many goals and dominating, and for us, it was the first 20 minutes that were so important," Streets said. "Historically, they start to come out and score goals."

St. Johns, which had crushed its last six opponents by a combined 48-0, couldn't find the breakthrough this time. But they came close, particularly just before halftime when freshman Sydney Schmidt struck one from the top of the box. Instead of rippling the net for her 25th goal of the year, this attempt clanked off the crossbar.

Spartans midfielder Lauryn Mateo also threatened several times off passes from Avery Raimondo but narrowly missed. It wasn't until the final 35 seconds, when Nowicki put away a scramble in the box, that St. Johns found a way past Vikings keeper MacKenzie Marotz. Moments later, the clock hit zero.

"We had chances to win the game and, credit to them, they [Lakeland Christian] hung tough and got the one in the second half," Pickett said.

HISTORIC STREAK ENDS

For the Spartans, Wednesday's defeat ends a run to rank with the most extraordinary in Florida history.

St. Johns had won 59 consecutive regional and state playoff games going back to 2011, including three seasons (2017, 2018 and 2021) that ended in No. 1 rankings from one or more national organizations.

While Bolles' 35 consecutive boys swimming championships remain untouched across all Florida sports, St. Johns' 11-year run enters the record books for the longest streak in a team ball sport.

For Pickett, 2023 marks the end of a streak, but not the end of an era. The young Spartans roster includes a half-dozen regulars still in middle school, although St. Johns must replace several key seniors, including midfielders Mateo and Raimondo.

"Now that we lost," Pickett said, "there's a definite motivation."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school girls soccer 2023: St. Johns title streak ended