The Everett High girls soccer team ended the season on a high note, erasing a 2-0 deficit with two goals late in the game, including the equalizer with 1:11 to play, to earn a 2-2 tie with Lynn Classical in the season finale at Glendale Park Saturday afternoon.
“This was such an exciting and positive way to finish the season,” said EHS head coach DeAnn Larrabee. “The girls played their hearts out to overcome the early deficit. It was a nice way to end the year.”
Kayla Ringdahl scored the first Everett goal with a powerful direct kick that beat the Classical keeper to make it 2-1 with about 13 minutes to play. Up to that point, the visitors from Lynn seemed to have the game in hand, having scored in the first half and then again about six minutes after the intermission.
But Kayla’s goal fired up her Crimson Tide teammates, who pressed furiously in order to notch the tying marker amidst an increasingly heavy rain and worsening field conditions in the early afternoon on Saturday.
Everett’s hard work and determination paid off when eighth grader Kamilla Fernandez, assisted by fellow middle schooler Sheryl Steeves, reached the back of the net with 1:11 showing on the clock.
“This was a very emotional day for us because it was Senior Day,” noted Larrabee, “so to come back the way we did and for our seniors to end their careers on such a positive note was very gratifying.”
Appropriate ceremonies and festivities were held after the contest to mark the departure of seniors Jess Fuentes, Tracey Nicholson, Donna DiBattista, and Lauren Merriman, as well as to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2009 edition of the Lady Crimson Tide soccer team.
“Our seniors really will be missed,” said Larrabee. “They truly were our leaders, both on and off the field, and served as great role models for our younger players.”
So on a day that the girls soccer program said farewell to their seniors, it also was appropriate that the final goal of the season was accomplished by a pair of eighth graders, Fernandez and Steeves, who represent the future of EHS girls soccer.