Thrilling finish not enough

to push FHS over Lions

By Adam Combs

Citizen sports editor

Winning forever is never an option for sports teams. At some point, losing will happen. Well, it finally happened to the Florence High School girls soccer team.

After seeing a nice winning streak come along, the Huskies ran into one of the top teams in the Tri-Peaks League, if not the state, in Colorado Springs Christian School.Florence lost 4- 0 to the Lions at Husky Stadium Monday, April 21, in a game that had been rescheduled from its original date of Tuesday, April 22. The loss sent Florence back below the .500 mark.

However tough the loss might have been for the Huskies, they had to be feeling good heading into the game, especially following the thrilling 2- 0 victory over Colorado Springs School Tuesday, April 15.

Both teams were having difficulty playing well in the feisty wind that was persisting throughout the stadium. Many balls would rapidly change directions following the strike from the player while in midair. Several times the ball would even bounce right over the east fence into the ravine on the other side of the stadium. Something that hadn’t happened maybe but just a few times total the whole season.

However, the Husky defense continued to play well, and the offense finally woke up after having been in the aggressive the whole second half without anything to show for it. With just about 10 minutes, Husky Mary Webb made a great, off-balance cross pass to Raquel Koonce, who has able to receive the pass, and kick it in past the goalie for a 1-0 lead.

CSS decided to change goaltenders, bringing out what was clearly their most aggressive and vocal leader into the field of action. The change didn’t have much affect on Florence as the Huskies continued to dominate offensively, keeping the ball mostly on the CSS side of the field. The pass from Webb to Koonce and the finish on the goal was something that Head Coach Dominic Martinez had been looking for all season long.

“That was a great corss, and we have worked all year long on those in practices, and it was great to see it finally come through in a game,” he said. Following the goal by FHS, the Florence midfield continued to put pressure on the CSS defense, and kayti Frost added the second goal of the game with just under three minutes left.  “This was a big win for us, and they are a pretty good team, but were a little short handed today,” Martinez said.

However, following the thirlling victory, all Martinez could think about was the challenge of playing the Lions in the very next game. “They are one fo the top teams in our league so it is going to be tough, and we have to get right back to work on the practice field and prepare as well as we can for them,” he added.

Unfortunately for Florence, the preparation allowed them to make a game of it with the Lions, but it didn’t allow them to win.

Florence has James Irwin on the road April 24, before finishing the season at home with games against Sierra April 26, and then against Rye April 29. The game against Sieraa begins at 11:15 a.m., while the Rye game won’t kick off until 4:15 p.m.