Local Sports

Cowboys double up Dragons

Photos

Allen Moody | Highlands Today
Published: November 28, 2012

LAKE PLACID - The Lake Placid Green Dragons had a bit of a holiday hangover Monday night against LaBelle, spotting the Cowboys an early 4-0 lead before regrouping and falling by a final score of 4-2 in girls soccer at Roger Scarborough Memorial Field.

"We can call it the Turkey Bowl because that was a game of too much turkey and no practice," said Lake Placid coach John Merlo. "We had two non-mandatory practices, so the girls who were in town came and we only had eight, so all you could really do is shoot."

Merlo said he has seen the same scenario pan out in the past.

"It was a Thanksgiving game and the same thing happened last year against Sebring and the year before that it was against Frostproof," he said. "You could tell they had a week off. It's family time and because it's family time these things are going to happen. The good thing was I knew we were going to have a non-district game the first game back."

The Cowboys didn't waste any time getting their offense going, scoring three goals before the first-half water break and adding their fourth goal shortly afterwards.

"We came out slow and the defense was not running the offside trap very well," Merlo said. "We ran it too much and you can only go to that well so many times."

When the Green Dragons were unable get the offside call, it left goalie Tamija Douglas out to dry on breakaways, but the freshman was up to the task on several occasions and kept the game from getting out of hand.

"None of the four that they scored can be blamed on the goalie," Merlo said. "I thought she had three unbelievable saves on different breakaways."

The Green Dragons got on the scoreboard with just over 10 minutes to go in the half when Hannah Waller knocked a ball in the right side of the net to make it 4-1 at the break.

The Green Dragons switched their defense in the second half, playing more man-to-man, which kept LaBelle from getting open breakaways.

The Cowboys had a solid opportunity to score their fifth goal of the match late in the second half, but Douglas stopped a penalty kick.

Meredith Bates scored for the Green Dragons with just over four minutes remaining in the match, with Michelle Hunter picking up the assist, to account for the final score.

"We set little things we wanted to do at halftime and that was to score one more goal and not let them score and we did that," Merlo said. "So you take the little things."

Merlo said the return of Rosa Ramirez next week will help shore up things defensively, which in turn will help the offense.

"It's hurt us that Rosa is still out; she's our sweeper and the captain of our defense," he said. "We've been trying to figure out who we can put there. With her out, our two mid-fielders, Stephanie Bennett and Hannah Waller, have to play so much defense they have no legs when it's time to go on offense."

Lake Placid played DeSoto at home on Tuesday and results were not available at press time. The Green Dragons host Hardee on Thursday night.

"The next two games are winnable games to me and they're district games, so those are the ones that really count and after that we get Rosa back," Merlo said.

amoody@highlandstoday.com (863) 386-5841