VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach Fighting Indians defeated St. Edward’s 27-2 to remain unbeaten, and win their sixth-straight district title.
Senior Jenn Leffew led the Vero Beach arsenal with seven goals, and took advantage extended playing time, which has been rare this season for the starting players.
“When I told the girls that the first unit was going to play most of the game, Jenn’s eyes kind of lit up and got real big,” said VBHS Coach Shannon Dean. “She obviously played great today, as did the rest of the girls. I told all the girls before the game that they couldn’t look past the significance of a district championship, because it’s very important.”
Three other Fighting Indians combined to score 10 more goals, with sophomore Mackenzie Smith netting four, and juniors Sammy MacCurdy and Courtney Swan both had hat tricks.
The score was 16-1 by halftime, but the St. Edward’s Pirates hung in there and competed hard in the second half. Freshman Chloe O’Haire scored the lone goal of the first half, and sophomore Maddy Blakeman netted the other SES goal in the second half.
“I was proud of our team for handling themselves well all year,” said SES Coach Mike Perez. “We’ve got a lot of young players coming down the pipeline for next year, and our young players did very well at the end of the game.”
Leaving the starters in for most of the game, the Fighting Indians dominated from start to finish.
“Throughout the season, I’ve been pulling the starters 10 or 15 minutes into the game,” said Vero Beach Coach Dean. “A lot of the girls didn’t come out today – this is the playoffs. Also, they didn’t want to come out because they are playing against their friends out there. It means a lot to these girls beating the cross-town rivals.”
VBHS (17-0) travels to Jupiter (12-3) Tuesday for the first round of regional competition.