P.K. Yonge wins 6th straight district title

P.K. Yonge's girls soccer team captured its sixth straight district title with a win over Newberry. Photo by Mike Ridaught
P.K. Yonge's girls soccer team captured its sixth straight district title with a win over Newberry.
Photo by Mike Ridaught

Winning a trophy has become a regular thing for the P.K. Yonge girls soccer team.

On Tuesday night at Williston High School, the No. 1 seed Lady Blue Wave rode a dominating offensive and defensive performance to a 7-0 win against No. 3 seed Newberry to win the Class 2A-District 3 title.

It was the sixth straight district championship for the girls program, which improved to 14-2-1 on the season.

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“So exciting,” said P.K. Yonge coach Rebecca Schackow. “I’m really happy for the girls. They were working hard, staying focused, to get this victory. We came in being the favorite team but that’s always a hard position to be in and they knew it. So I’m just really proud of them for being disciplined and seeing it through because they wanted this win very badly.”

Senior Faith Hardy, who began playing for the Lady Blue Wave when she was in the eighth grade, had bookend goals, the first and last of the game, along with the fifth score of the game with 15:05 left in the second half for the hat trick.

“It feels awesome,” said Hardy, who won her fifth district title. “We’ve played Keystone the last four so to switch it up a little bit and play Newberry, it was awesome.

The Palm Beach Atlantic University signee gave P.K. Yonge some early momentum with a straight-away goal six minutes into the match.

P.K. Yonge's Faith Hardy had a hat trick in the Blue Wave's 7-0 district title win over Newberry.
Photo by Mike Ridaught P.K. Yonge’s Faith Hardy had a hat trick in the Blue Wave’s 7-0 district title win over Newberry.

“It was definitely not the prettiest goal because it deflected off the player, but I think that was a great way to get our momentum going and just set the standard in the game,” she said.

P.K. Yonge spent most of the night on the offensive with a total of eight different players taking a shot on the goal in the first half.

“Amazing, yes, they were hungry,” Schackow said. “We’ve been really working on movement off the ball, opening up more spaces, and trying to throw off our opponents. Newberry has a strong back line, very good defender. So we knew we were going to have to figure out a way to have some gaps open up so I’m really proud of the girls for making that happen and then when the little chance opened up they were ready to strike.”

Hardy had a ball hit the crossbar from 20-plus yards out but less than a minute later freshman Lily Tomlinson scored on a penalty kick for a 2-0 lead with 23:40 left on the first half clock.

Following a couple more shots on goal, Hardy was just wide left on a header and senior Sydnie Colaw hit a shot off of the crossbar.

Seniors Elliot Pancoast (Clark University) and Mallory Dassa had shots just over the top of the goal and several others missed shots on goal, or it could have been much worse.

Instead, it was just 2-0 at halftime.

However, it didn’t take long for the ball to find the net as P.K. Yonge scored two goals in just under six minutes into the second half.

Junior Paulina Cervantes hit a “banger” as Hardy called it, from at least 20 yards out and then senior Mae Dodd scored off a deflection for a 4-0 lead.

“It was just like a little mix-up in the box,” said Dodd, a University of South Carolina Aiken signee. “I was just lucky to be on the end of it to tap it in. It was just chaos, and I was just trying to blast through.”

Junior Taylor Hass scored the sixth goal on a header with 7:32 remaining.

Hardy finished the scoring with 4:27 remaining. 

It was a dominant performance by both the offense and the defense, which did not allow a Newberry (14-4-2) shot on goal all game.

Last year, P.K. Yonge advanced to its first final four in program history.

Now they want a ring.

They are three wins away from going back, and they’ll get two weeks off before their first regional game (TBD) on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

“This is the beginning of the playoffs, so we still see some things that we need to fine-tune and work on,” Schackow said. “Everybody can always use the rest, recuperate a little bit, refocus, and then have time to watch game film. There just hasn’t been a lot of time with a busy regular season and so it will be good to have a little extra time to dial in.”

And because they are the No. 1 seed in 2A-Region 1, they will be at home all the way up to the final four.

“I love that rule,” Schackow said with a laugh. “That’s a great one, for us.”  

Area teams in bold

GIRLS

 Class 1A-District 2 at St. Joseph Academy (St. Augustine)

 Championship – Tuesday, Jan. 28

1 St. Joseph Academy (St. Augustine) 3, 2 Oak Hall 1

Class 2A-District 2 at Lafayette (Mayo)

Championship – Tuesday, Jan. 28

1 Lafayette (Mayo) 1, 2 Branford 0

Class 2A-District 3 at Williston

Championship – Tuesday, Jan. 28

1 P.K. Yonge 7, 3 Newberry 0

BOYS

Class 1A-District 2 at higher seed

Championship – Tuesday, Jan. 28

1 St. Joseph Academy (St. Augustine) 5, 2 Oak Hall 0

Class 2A-District 2 at Bell

Semifinals – Monday, Jan. 27

2 Bell 2, 3 Lafayette (Mayo) 1

4 Branford 4, 1 Hamilton County (Jasper) 3

Championship – Thursday, Jan. 30

4 Branford at 2 Bell, 7 p.m.

Class 2A-District 3 at Williston

Semifinals – Monday, Jan. 27

2 Newberry 3, 3 Williston 2

4 Trinity Catholic (Ocala) 4, 1 P.K. Yonge 2

Championship – Wednesday, Jan. 29

2 Newberry vs. 4 Trinity Catholic (Ocala), 7 p.m.

Class 3A-District 4 at Santa Fe (Alachua)

Semifinals – Tuesday, Jan. 28

3 Eastside 3, 2 Keystone Heights 1

1 Santa Fe (Alachua) 5, 5 Palatka 0

Championship – Thursday, Jan. 30

3 Eastside at 1 Santa Fe (Alachua), 7:30 p.m.

Class 5A-District 5 at Ormond Beach Sports Complex

Semifinals – Tuesday, Jan. 28

2 Springstead (Spring Hill) 4, 3 Gainesville 0

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