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East Lake Girls Advance To Final Four

East Lake 3, Seminole 0

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: February 2, 2008

SEMINOLE - SEMINOLE - The East Lake Lady Eagles can begin packing their bags and preparing a trip to Ft. Lauderdale after their 3-0 Friday night victory over Seminole sends the program to its first state final four appearance in school history.

Enduring nearly 20 straight minutes of Seminole on the attack to start the game, East Lake's sturdy defense and stellar goalkeeping from senior Ali Burnham bent, but refused to break.

The Eagles (17-5-0) have now shutout all three of their Class 5A-Region 3 opponents by a combined score of 14-0.

"I'll be honest, we were a little put off with the intensity and everything else and I don't think we were ready to play," East Lake head coach Raleigh Daves said of his girls' slow start. "But we finally settled down, and once we did, we were fine."

Momentum began to swing in the Eagle's favor after the first half water break and then they promptly posted their first score of the night at the 21:15 mark.

Eagle forward Tessa MacGregor nearly collided with Seminole goalkeeper Casey Merson and failed to knock home a header, but speedy teammate Leah Fisher was in great position for the rebound to finish off the open-netter.

"I looked at first and thought (MacGregor) was going to get hurt, but the ball popped out and she was still up," an elated Fisher said of the play. "I was like, 'Oh! There it is!' and I was just able to put it in."

The Eagles seemed to collectively feed off the lead goal and cranked up their attack even further.

Little more than five minutes later, junior Alicia Nalley wound up her big-time left foot around the top of the box and slammed in East Lake's second goal from 20 yards out.

Before the first half's end, Burnham again came up huge for the Eagles with back-to-back saves on a Warhawk free kick and close-range rebound attempt.

East Lake continued to repel any attack Seminole (18-3-1) had to offer in the second half and senior Danielle Ciglar capped the evening's scoring with 9:21 remaining to ice the game.

"It's senior year, there's no better way to go out than to go to States," Ciglar said.

The Eagles advance to play Lakeland George Jenkins at noon on Friday in Ft. Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium.

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