- April 25, 2024
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For the second time in as many years, it will be an all-Flagler County District 4 girls lacrosse championship when Flagler Palm Coast and Matanzas meet on Thursday night with a state playoff berth on the line.
Matanzas (11-5), the No. 2 seed in the tournament, earned its bid after defeating Pedro Menendez, 12-6, on Tuesday night.
The Lady Pirates were led by seniors Danica Leili and Stephanie Giminez, who combined to score 10 of the team’s 12 goals.
“It was not our best game, that’s for sure,” Matanzas coach Anna Adair said after the game. “We have to show up and play a lot better than that on Thursday.”
Matanzas led at halftime, 4-2, but a big second half from Giminez powered Matanzas to the win. Giminez scored five consecutive goals at the end of the first half and into the second half to help the Lady Pirates pull away.
At halftime, Adair said she told her team to focus on the basics.
“Ground balls, passing and catching,” she said. “If you do those things, you’ll produce on the field.”
Despite most of the scoring coming from two players, Adair said she isn’t concerned that two players scored the bulk of the goals Tuesday night. She expects her other goal scorers to show up in the title game.
This was Leili’s first game back in almost two weeks, Adair said. That’s good news for Matanzas heading into the championship.
Earlier in the night ...
Flagler Palm Coast scored three goals in the first four minutes Tuesday night en route to a 16-2 drubbing of St. Augustine in the District 4 semifinals.
“We played well,” FPC coach James Hackett said after the game. “We moved the ball around, and our defense played decent. That’s the way we should play.”
FPC (7-6) got scoring from six different players, with Kelly Kastner leading the way with five goals, including three straight to close out the game.
Just 10 minutes into the game, the Lady Bulldogs led, 7-1, and never looked back. FPC is the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Courtney Walton, who is back playing after missing some time, added a hat trick of her own.
“Courtney puts a lot into our offense,” Hackett said. “We really work on spreading out the field and looking for cutters. Today, we put what we practiced into play, so it was good.”
Thursday's district championship will be a rematch of last year’s title game. The Lady Pirates won that game, 8-3.
Matanzas beat FPC in overtime, 6-5, less than two weeks ago.
“I thought it was a pretty evenly matched game the last time we played them, they just made more saves than we did," Hackett said.
Adair said playing FPC so many times over the last few seasons could be good and bad.
"It’s kinda trucky to play (FPC) so many times because the girls start to overthink and get nervous," Adair said.
Follow @aobrien7 on Twitter for live updates from Thursday's championship game.
