The Steinbrenner Warriors girl’s soccer team has had an amazing season, advancing to the playoffs with lots of energy. They only lost one game in their regular season against Bloomingdale, and have not had a loss since, even in big competitive games.  

This season added many new players to their starting lineup, including freshman Abbey Ferguson. “I think starting as a freshman gives me a great opportunity to gain experience from the veteran players and build connections on the field that can last me for the next four years” Ferguson said.  

 The Warriors were entered in the western conference this season which is a separate competition from the district rounds.  

 The Western Conference semifinals were on January 16th against the Sumner Stingrays. The Warriors defeated the Stingrays 3-2 to move on to the conference finals. The following day, they had a match up against Wharton for the championship game. With Goals being scored by Brenna Ruggeri; 2 goals, and Abbey Ferguson; with one goal, the Warriors got the victory leaving the score 3-1. The Warriors got their first trophy of the season for winning this conference.  

 As the girls had a week to practice for the District Semifinals against Land O’ Lakes, they were prepared to shut them down. The Warriors ended up beating Land O’ Lakes 4-0. “Beating Land O’ Lakes was a great opportunity to show how good of a team we are and good practice for the district game versus sun lake. Making it to the District Finals with a mainly freshman team shows how much we were going to be able to accomplish in the next four years”, Freshman Abbey Ferguson explained. 

 January 30th was the District Finals, and they played the Sunlake Seahawks. As both teams were fighting for the trophy the Warriors stayed undefeated in the playoff games, officially winning 2-0.  

 As the team celebrated with the district trophy, they were excited to head into the regional matchups in February. Coach Aiken expressed, “I think just the mentality change of having the young players versus having the older players that tend to sometimes be nervous about games coming up because they know what we’ve done in the past three years, the incoming freshmen have no idea unless they look. So, 100% we’re going to win every game.”