District champions

The Cardinal Mooney High girls soccer team was not its usual self.

The team, which was without four of its starters due to a concussion, food poisoning and the flu, appeared somewhat sluggish and out of sync in the first half of its Class 2A-District 11 championship game versus DeSoto County Jan. 16.

Even though the play itself might not have been characteristic of the Lady Cougars’ season thus far, the result was still the same — another win.

Cardinal Mooney defeated DeSoto County 4-1 to win its fourth district championship in five years.

It was not the score the Lady Cougars envisioned when they stepped onto John Heath Field at Austin Smithers Stadium, having beaten the Lady Bulldogs by 8-0 scores in their two previous meetings.

“The first half, I don’t know whether they were a little bit nervous just being in the final,” coach Graham Warne says. “We gave away too many easy balls. Our shape in the midfield was off. We just didn’t take our opportunities. We were sluggish in the first half.”

But the three-goal margin was enough to secure the Lady Cougars’ home-field advantage through at least the first round of the regional tournament. Cardinal Mooney will host Cape Coral Oasis in a Class 2A-Region 3 quarterfinal match Jan. 23.

Junior forward Rose Amato scored two minutes into the match and again eight minutes later to give Cardinal Mooney a 2-0 lead.

“At first, we kind of got a little overconfident,” Amato says. “That put a lot of pressure on us.”

The Lady Cougars did not find the back of the net until the second half on goals by freshman Skylar Jungers and junior Alex Byers.

“At first, we kind of started off slow, but in the second half we picked it up and got our game back together,” Amato says. “Our defense was really strong throughout the whole game. All the hard work paid off. Practice is where we get good. We don’t get good during the game.”

Having posted 14 shutouts this season, Cardinal Mooney gave up a goal in the final two minutes of the match. It was only the 13th goal and first in district action that the Lady Cougars have allowed this season.

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].