Sebring falls to Ridge in district soccer tourney

The Sebring girls soccer team's season came to an abrupt end on Tuesday night.

The Blue Streaks fell behind by two goals and eventually lost to Ridge Community by a score of 2-1 in the Class 5A-District 5 soccer tournament at Winter Haven High School.

"We were still on the bus and we did not attack any ball," said a disappointed Sebring coach Paul Brown.

Coach Brown, who is usually not at a loss for words, could not find the right phrase to describe how the Blue Streaks played in the first half.

In fact, it looked like the Sebring team was either playing timid in the first half or they were intimidated.

Ridge initiated a rough and physical style of play that either threw the Blue Streaks off their game or they were not anticipating the ball.

The end result was that the referees allowed the girls to play and were not calling penalties on the rough play and the Sebring girls backed off the Ridge players allowing them to pass and maneuver with the ball.

This permitted Ridge to control the ball in Sebring's half of the field for the majority of the first half.

Even with the persistent pressure that Ridge put on the Sebring team, the Bolts only managed to score one goal which came with 5:30 remaining in the first half.

Ridge managed to center the ball about 20 yards in front of the goal when they scored on a softly kicked ball that went over the head of the Blue Streak keeper.

Even with the passive play by Sebring, the Blue Streaks trailed only 1-0.

The Sebring team that came out in the second half did not look like the squad that played in the first.

The Blue Streaks matched the Bolts physical style of play, at times they surpassed it and controlled the ball for the first 20 minutes on Ridge's side of the field, but were unable to score.

"We played a lot better in the second half," Brown said. "Then we scored our own goal when our own player kicked it when our goalie came out to get the ball and it went into the back of the net.

"We were playing well up until then, then we had a bad five minutes, then the last 10-15 minutes we came on strong again."

Ridge would make a push and with 18:45 left in the game, the play that Coach Brown alluded to happened.

Ridge was able to center the ball in front of the net. A Sebring defender came back to block the ball or kick it away and ended up kicking it in their own goal to give Ridge a 2-0 lead.

For almost six minutes after giving up the second goal, it looked like the wind was taken out Sebring's sails, but with 13 minutes left in the game, the Blue Streaks roared back to life.

Sebring's Destiny McCartney got loose on the right side and fired a shot at goal. The ball hit the goal so hard it made a shuddering sound, but the ball shot back into the field and Sebring was still scoreless.

Sebring finally scored with 6:49 left in the game when they were able to center the ball in front of goal. From there Mariana Becker scored from about 20 yards out.

Sebring would continue to push and pressure the Ridge defense, but ran out of time and ended up on the wrong end of the 2-1 final.

"Ridge deserved to win because they were the better team in the first half," the Blue Streak coach said. "But give our girls credit, they were the better team in the second half and I am really proud of them, they have done well this year.

"It's just a shame they did not get off the bus until halftime."