| Special to The Sun
As the clock wound down in Tuesday’s high school soccer match, P.K. Yonge girls coach Rebecca Schackow couldn’t help but start thinking about the postseason.
With no more regular season games left, Schackow can finally turn her attention to a state title run.
The Blue Wave (12-0-2) closed out the regular season with a dominating 6-0 win over rival Oak Hall at home, going 6-0-1 at home.
Just like they have many of other nights, the Blue Wave jumped on their opponent early and rode their suffocating defense to their 10th shutout of the season.
“My defense is actually a young backline, we’ve got two ninth-graders, an eighth-grader and a 10th-grader, but it’s just their hard work and their courage,” Schackow said. “My ninth-grade center back is Marleigh Schackow, eighth-grader Emma Mansfield, freshman Alli Maze, Madison Buss is a sophomore centerback and we have two juniors right above them. That group of six really works well together and they make a challenge for anyone to get through and get some shots off.”
P.K. Yonge on offense, which entered the night with 75 goals, isn’t too shabby either.
Junior Karuna Leslie scored the first of two goals on the night, barely three minutes in to give the Blue Wave a 1-0 lead.
Eight-grade forward Faith Hardy, who entered the game with an area leading 29 goals, put in two of her own on back-to-back breakaways three minutes apart.
“Faith has a passion for this game, that is really special, she loves soccer, she loves to compete and she is really fast,” Schackow said. “She also has great foot work and a great work ethic, she’s not sitting around, she’s trying to getter better every day. She makes it look easy but it’s not easy, she puts in a lot of hard work and the whole team is able to get the ball up the field and set her up.”
Senior Juliette Palechor scored her 14th goal of the season on a 20-yard shot through traffic to increase the lead to 4-0 with 11 minutes left until half.
Oak Hall finally had its first shot on goal with five minutes left, thanks to the backline of Maze, Mansfield, Buss, Sally Schackow, Chloe Westbrooks and Marleigh Schackow along with keeper Chloe MacLaren, who held the Eagles to just three shots on goal. The Eagles were riding a momentum streak of their own after having won five in a row and outscoring their opponents 31-1 during the stretch.
“We have been competing against each other (Coach Schackow) for quite a few years, I respect the way she coaches her team and she prepared us excellently to get us ready for districts and hopefully regionals,” Oak Hall coach Ken Murphy said. “We had to go more in defensive mode with them against their attack, we had to give up part of our offense to balance it out and we were able to control most of the second half. Some of that was more people stepping up and getting more energy and believing in themselves.”
The Blue Wave didn’t let up in the second half, as eighth-grader Mallory Dassa scored off a rebound and Leslie, got just enough of a foot on a ball to poke it through to the net for a 6-0 lead in the 70th minute.
“I feel really excited, you start pre-season and think it’s never going to get here and you have this long road ahead, you wake up and like oh our regular season just ended today,” Schackow said. “I feel really excited, this group of girls is a pleasure to work with, they are so hardworking, so resilient and persevere. We’re not the biggest team, we’re not the fastest team but we really try to get better each day and it’s been a real joy to see them learn the game and I’m excited to see what they are going to do in the playoffs.”
P.K. Yonge takes the rest of the week off before heading to Keystone Heights for the District 4-3A tournament Feb. 2-9, competing against Crescent City, Fort White, Interlachen, Keystone Heights and Newberry.
Oak Hall (9-5-2) will travel to University Christian on Friday, before hosting the District 2-2A tournament Feb. 3-5 and compete against Lafayette, Hamilton County and Saint Francis.
More Stories
The Most Played Barbie Games
3 Facts About Why You Should Use Product Comparison Shopping
History Of Solitaire Card Game