Women's soccer wins, advances to national tourney semifinals
The Eastern Florida State College women's soccer team is back in the semifinals of the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament in Evans, Georgia.
The Titans defeated Hill College 4-0 to win Pool B and advance to the semifinals for the sixth straight season. The defending national champions defeated Hill College in pool play for the second straight season.
Sophomore Laura Cetina scored twice in the first 11 minutes of the game and has scored four goals in the national tournament.
Cetina scored the first goal that started with a corner kick by Lena Stevens. The first two shots went off the crossbar, a third was blocked but the ball came to Cetina who buried it eight minutes into the contest.
It didn't take long as Cetina hit a rocket from outside the box that skipped past the goalkeeper and gave the Titans a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the contest.
It looked as if Hill College would cut the lead in half in the 23rd minute when Hill College was awarded a penalty kick. But goalkeeper Chloe Adams made the stop to protect the shutout.
It would remain 2-0 at halftime but Eastern Florida State College would add to the lead five minutes into the second half as Lea Monteiro headed a corner kick from Lena Stevens past the goalkeeper.
"Laura has been hot, Kailey (Dunne) and Andrea (Fuentes) have been hurt and they really gutted it out today, it was good to get up early so we could rest some players and the players that came in played really well," Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Scott Carswell said. "We have gotten back to playing the way we were playing a couple of weeks ago, string together multiple passes, getting our crosses in and scoring on restarts, just all the things we have been talking about since August that we wanted to do we have been doing now."
The Titans defense would hold strong against a Hill College offensive attack.
"All four of them played well, Sofia (Posner) was unbelievable, Andrea (Fuentes) marked No 19 right out of the game, Jessica (Martin) was all over the place and Chloe (Adams) saved a penalty kick. It was a good team effort," Carswell said. "We were a bit worried being an at-large team but now that we are here, we have some confidence. We have seen Iowa Western and they have improved through the season but so have we and we are excited to play the game."
Then in the 86th minute Eastern Florida State College's Nancy Almanza scored on a penalty kick.
Eastern Florida State College will play Iowa Western in the national tournament semifinals Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Evans, Georgia. You can watch the game live online at https://www.njcaa.org/network/landing/index