ORANGE PARK – St. Johns Country Day put its No. 1 national ranking on the line this weekend and left still with the No. 1 ranking after winning the inaugural Champions Classic.
With a 55 game winning streak on the line, longtime St. Johns Country Day head girls soccer coach Mike Pickett invited state powers Merritt Island and Montverde Academy along with local state power Bolles for a two day event that featured both local teams taking on both of the out of town teams.
All four teams played in the Final Four last season as Merritt Island won the Class 3A state title with a 1-0 win over Stanton, Montverde was the Class 2A state runnerups last season, Bolles lost 2-1 to Montverde in the state semifinals and the host Spartans won their sixth straight Class 1A state title with a 2-0 win over Lakeland Christian.
All four are nationally ranked according to MaxPreps, as Montverde is No. 2 in the country, followed by No. 6 Bolles, St. Johns No. 16 and Merritt Island No. 24 in the latest poll. According to USA Today, the defending USA Today national champions from St. Johns are the No. 1 team in the Winter Girls rankings, while Merritt Island is ranked No. 6.
The event kicked off Friday with Bolles (10-2-1) and Montverde (11-0) playing on the football field, while Merritt Island (11-1) and St. Johns Country Day (11-0) playing on the soccer field. Bolles and St. Johns switched opponents on Saturday as Bolles took on Merritt Island and St. Johns hosting Montverde.
St. Johns 4, Merritt Island 2
About the midway point of the first half, Merritt Island jumped out to 1-0 lead in the 22 minute of the game stunning the home crowd.
Six minutes later, the Spartans tied it up as LSU commit Abbey Newton put in a ball off a deflection shot off a corner kick from Alisa Detlefsen.
Three minutes later, the Spartans took their first lead of the game as Newton got a head on a perfectly placed ball off a corner kick from Detlefsen and an assist from Payton Crews, a TCU commit.
Merritt Island tied it up with less than five minutes left till halftime on a remarkable 50 yard shot from midfield over keeper Maddie Wilkes head.
However it didn’t take the Spartans long to retake the lead as Florida State commit Kirsten Pavlisko was taken down inside the box in the first minute of the second half. Newton placed the penalty kick in the right corner putting the Spartans ahead 3-2 just 54 seconds into the half.
In the 70th minute, Newton fed Crews a nice pass and Crews standing in front of the goal placed a shot past the diving keeper for a 4-2 lead.
Newton, who finished the game with three goals and one assists to lead the Spartans to their 56th straight win, talked about the comeback win.
“After they scored first, we knew this was the best team we’ve seen so far and we knew we had to step it up,” Newton said.
Although glad to get the win and pitching a second half shutout, Pickett knew they had to play better with an even larger game looming tomorrow.
“We made a couple of adjustments at halftime with putting people in better matchups,” Pickett said. “We don’t want to get into a situation like this tomorrow, we can’t afford to get down 1-0 to Montverde. ”
In the other opening game, Montverde handled Bolles easily 4-1.
St. Johns 4, Montverde 1
In the finale, Bolles rallied from a 3-2 second half deficit to stun Merritt Island 5-3 to finish the two day event with one win.
Meanwhile in the other game, St. Johns established an early lead with two quick goals from Anna Carrico and Kamy Loustau to take an early 2-0 lead.
Montverde scored just before half to cut the lead to 2-1 at the half, perhaps giving them some much need confidence heading into the break.
Locked in a 2-1 stalemate, the Spartans finally were able to get some breathing room as Newton found Paige, who placed a shot into the right corner for a 3-1 lead with 26:48 left in the match.
With 15:40 left, Newton scored her fourth goal of the two day event weaving through 4 defenders to stretch the lead to 4-1 giving the Spartans the win.
“It worked out exactly how I hoped it would, we faced adversity all weekend and we are improving and getting better as reach the third part of the season the playoff,” Pickett said.
A defense which has only surrendered 7 goals in 13 games, and is led by Maddie Moody, Lauren Weiss, Payton Walton, Detlefsen and Pavilisko, continues to be getting much better as well.
“Our defense is a work in progress but is improving and getting better as well,” Our keeper Maddie (Wilkes) is really a softball player who is only in her third year of playing soccer and continues to get better every week.”
2017 Champions Classic
St. Johns (2-0)
Montverde (1-1)
Bolles (1-1)
Merritt Island (0-2)
What’s next
With no games scheduled over Christmas break, now the Spartans (13-0) will take some much needed time off and get ready for the last part of the season before the playoffs begin.
Despite the lengthy layoff, Pickett didn’t seem to concerned about it.
“We need some time off, this will help us get some rest and recover for the third part of the season.”
After playing two nationally ranked teams and having four nationally ranked teams at St. Johns, Pickett stated, “I think this was fantastic and some really good soccer you saw this weekend.”
St. Johns finishes out the regular season hosting Bolles (Jan. 4), St. Francis (Jan 8), St. Joseph (Jan 10) before closing it out with three consecutive road games at Bartram Trail (Jan 12), Clay (Jan 16) and Creekside (Jan 18) and the District 2-1A tournament Jan 22-25 at St. Joseph.
