By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge High Soccer Scores Big 8-0 Win Against Leesburg High
East Ridge High School is looking really good down the home stretch of the 2024 soccer season. After four straight losses dating all the way back to December 14th of 2023, the Knights look back on track after a 6-2 win against Apopka late last week and an impressive 8-0 win against Leesburg last night.
The Knights come into this season as defending State Champions in Class 7A. They have been led by seniors #10 Haytham Abdalla who has 12 goals this season along with #9 Amir Taylor who has 8 goals on the year.
After being a part of last years state championship winning team Nicholas Aquilino has played well in goal. The 6”1” 185lb goalkeeper has been challenged a lot this season but he is still ranked inside the top three in saves made in Class 7A District 3.
Last night Leesburg had no answers to the strong play of East Ridge. The Knights are now 9-6-1 this season. Head coach John Quirk has done a commendable job this season after last years state championship run. Many players on that squad last season graduated so players like Abdalla and Taylor have had to step up this season. East Ridge has 9 players on their team this season who are seniors so next year should certainly be an interesting year for the Knights.
Meanwhile for the Yellow Jackets they finish up their season tonight at Mount Dora High. Junior #3 Beckham Gahret has been a team leader this season. They are 1-2 in the district, but they were underdogs last year and wound up winning their first district championship in a decade. So you can never count out the Yellow Jackets.
Enjoy the photography from last nights game below.
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.
