- April 25, 2024
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Seabreeze is off to a hot start at 4-0-1 through its first five games.
BY ANDREW O'BRIEN | SPORTS EDITOR
The Matanzas boys soccer team has trailed in two games this season. One time against Taylor, which ended in a draw. The other time was Tuesday night against Matanzas. The Sandcrabs went on to score three unanswered goals and win the match, 3-1.
Perseverance has been key for an undefeated Seabreeze (4-0-1) early in the season, coach Nik Efremoski said after Monday’s District 6-3A win over Matanzas.
“Matanzas is one of the candidates to win this year’s district, so we are very pleased with the way we played last night,” he said.
Matanzas actually took a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick in the 28th minute. Seabreeze responded quickly, though, when Jordan Collins got his boot on the end of a corner kick.
Seabreeze scored two quick goals within the first seven minutes of the second half to equalize and take the lead. They never looked back.
Hayden Hoggart netted one of the goals. The other came from Jeremiah Cronin, on a pass by Collins.
“I like the mental strength of the squad this year,” Efremoski said.
There are 15 seniors on this year’s team.
Despite starting the season without a loss over the first five games, Efremoski said individual mistakes are providing opponents good opportunities. That’s something he wants his team to fix going forward.
“We will need to keep simplifying our game on our half of the field and be very aggressive in the opponents’ half,” he said. “We have done well so far, but there is still a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the field.”
Still, the Seabreeze coach said his players believe in themselves. And that’s a large part of having success.
“They believe in themselves and know that the coaching staff believes in them to do something great.” he said. “They know that the only way to succeed is to stick together as a group and to work for one another, and this is exactly what they have been doing this season.”
