Seabreeze girls soccer wins Class 5A regional semifinal, loses regional

The district champion Sandcrabs’ hopes of advancing to the final four fell short on Feb. 14 with a double overtime loss to Cypress Creek.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 12:00 p.m. February 15, 2023
  • Ormond Beach Observer
  • Sports
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Seabreeze girls soccer coach Eli Freidus celebrated his birthday Friday, Feb. 10, with his team and a 1-0 win against the Horizon Hawks of Winter Garden in the Class 5A regional semifinal.

“That was not our best performance, but it’s a win and we got that monkey off our backs,” he said. “We are in the final eight right now — in the state. It’s a win; let’s go celebrate.”

But the district champion Sandcrabs’ hopes of advancing to the final four fell short  on Feb. 14 with a double overtime loss to Cypress Creek.

In the regional semifinal, due to rain and soggy fields, the referees called the game with 14:54 left in the first half. Seabreeze athletic director Brad Montgomery contacted the Florida High School Athletic Association, which was able to get the referees back on the field to finish the game.

With a score of 0-0 at the break, team captain and goal keeper Avery Dellinger and striker Brianna Chesley discussed what needed to happen to bring home a win.

“We said at the beginning, in our huddle, that we have to come out quick,” Dellinger said. “We need a goal early, because we knew the weather and situation that was going on. Me and Bri told them we have got to win this game. We are supposed to go further than this game. We prepared all season for this. We are not meant to stop here. We need to play our game, play strong, play physical.”

Going back into the game, the Sandcrabs kept their formation and style of play.

“Our main goal is to go to states and win the championship,” Chesley said. “They (Horizon) can give it what they want, but we’re going to work as a team and we are going to get the better outcome.”

At 9:10 p.m., the game was restarted. The intensity increased as both teams fought to keep the ball at their end of the field. Yellow cards were given to Horizon midfielders Caroline Kozlow and Janessa Crespo involving a slide tackle that injured Seabreeze player Annabel Thistle.

After several goal attempts that ricocheted off the framework, Brianna Chesley finally kicked the ball past goalie Ella Henderson’s outstretched leg.

“The game plan is we’ve got to play better,” Freidus said. “Every good run we have, I always noticed we have a game like this. Really good teams still have those games and get through. If you’re a bad team, you fall on those games. This is where they’ve got knocked out a bunch of years. We finally broke through, so that’s a big deal.”

But Seabreeze fell just short in the regional final.

 

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