January 31, 2024
East Ridge High Girls Soccer Team Advance To District Championship Game!
By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge High Girls Soccer Team Advance To District Championship Game!
The East Ridge High School Lady Knights have advanced to the Class 7A District 3 Championship game on Thursday evening where they will play against Lake Brantley High School! The Lady Knights have been spectacular all season long. They have not lost a game all season long and they had a convincing win against Apopka 8-0 last night to earn the right to play for the championship trophy.
Cayla Jackson would score 4 goals in the game and rack up 2 assists. Jackson was not the only one with a hatrick on the night, as Morgan Guillmette scored 3 goals and added 2 assists on the evening. Rylee Puglisi had a goal and Jordyn Burns had 1 assist. East Ridge High School is now 13-0-2. They have no losses this season and two ties.
(East Ridge High School’s Cayla Jackson had 4 goals and 2 assists in an 8-0 win against Apopka to send the East Ridge Lady Knights to the district championship game against Lake Brantley.)
The goaltender for the Lady Knights was Kayden Page. She has been amazing all season long and earned yet another shutout on the season. Page has only let in 9 goals this season and that is due to the amazing defenders that East Ridge has. Incredibly this is Kayden Page’s 8th shutout of the year marking the third time in her career that she was part of a team to have over 8 shutouts in a season. Only eclipsed by the 2020-2021 team that had 12 shutouts and finished 22-2-2.
(Senior Morgan Guillemette #8 had a hatrick and scored 3 goals as East Rige dominated Apopka 8-0 to earn a trip to the Class 7A District 3 Championship game.)
Coach Leon Florez was proud of the Lady Knights. “Very exciting to play for the district championship but the girls know the work is not finished. We play Lake Brantley for the championship on Thursday at 7pm.”
Lake Brantley is a formidable opponent. The Patriots come into the contest 12-4 on the season. This will be a fun final and will one of the best teams East Ridge will play this season. The Patriots have a terrific striker with Summer Kaufman. She has 11 goals this season. Junior Goalkeeper Kayla Morris has been stout this year but Lake Brantley will have to contend with one of the most talented front lines in all of Florida in Cayla Jackson who is approaching 40 goals this season. Jackson is committed to the University of Georgia.
Best of luck to the Lady Knights! Hopefully they can bring home a district championship. The game is at Lake Brantley at 7:00pm.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
