Girls soccer: Land O' Lakes fall to Citrus

It's been a rough go for the Land O' Lakes girls soccer team.

Off to a 1-2-4 start, which includes a 1-0 loss to new Class 4A-District 8 rival Citrus on Wednesday evening, the Gators have struggled to find consistency finishing scoring opportunities.

"We're not finishing and tonight we had many more opportunities," Coach Vicky King said. "And we're playing well, too, the ball just didn't get into the back of the net like we wanted. We're on their side of the field a lot, but we make one error defensive and here we are."

Despite the record (1-1-2 in district), Land O'Lakes has lost only by two goals, and of the four ties, two were scoreless games.

"Every game has been a one goal game except the (one) victory (2-0 against Wiregrass Ranch)," King said. "We've had those two 0-0 ties, but I think we're balanced enough to pull it together and find what we need."

The Hurricanes (3-0, 3-0) scored quickly into the game, when D.K. Miller scored at the sixth minute. The Gators had numerous opportunities, many of them in the second, including when the ball got past Citrus' keeper, but a Hurricane defender blocked a point-blank shot by Land O' Lakes. The Gators other two best chances were at the 31st minute when Kayla Robinson had a turn-and-shoot chance, but there was a good save by the keeper. The other came five minutes later when Nikki Forcier had a shot from within 10 yards.

Even with the close games, King said the Gators are missing Renae Porsch, who is participating at cross country state, and King says is a major cog to the team. That's why King doesn't want her players to pay attention to the team's record.

"We can't look at the record at how we're playing. We have to look at the games and how they were played," King said. "We're in a big district this year and we have to see how we're playing at the end and the rest of the season. It's been a hard week and we'll bounce back."

Mike Camunas