Knights eye regional opener against Naples
North Fort Myers’ perfect run in District 3A-13 girls soccer is complete. The Red Knights defeated Ida Baker 3-0 last Friday in the championship game of the district tournament at Baker.
Freshman Taylor Kruse had two goals for the Knights.
“This is just something that 22 girls have been working on since last summer,” Red Knights coach Nick Erickson said. “It paid off.”
North went 7-0 during the regular season against district opponents, then won three tournament games without giving up a goal.
“This is something that hasn’t been done at North High,” Erickson said. “They’re creating history in every single game they play. It’s pretty special to watch. You just can’t be more proud of all the effort they put in over the course of the year. It’s just a complete team effort all the time.”
“To be honest, North earned it,” Bulldogs coach Chris Vianest said. “I can’t take anything away from them. North came out and played a great game, and they earned it. There’s really nothing else I can say on that.”
District 3A-13 isn’t all that North has dominated this season. The Knights (22-1-1) suffered their only loss on Dec. 1 against Gulf Coast. In the process, they got revenge on Baker, which defeated North 5-4 in last year’s district final.
“They were the better team (last year),” Erickson said. “They were a fantastic team. We were fantastic this year.”
Next up for North is a home match Thursday against Naples in the first game of the regional playoffs.
“We’ll celebrate tonight, and then it’s on to bigger and better things,” Erickson said. “I love my job, and this is what we do. We’ve already scouted our opponent two times. We feel that we have an idea of what they like to do and we’re just real excited to host our first regional game in 20 years, maybe, if ever.”
Baker travels to Estero on Thursday for its regional quarterfinal. The Wildcats beat Naples for the District 3A-14 title.
“We’re going to play North in two weeks,” Vianest said. “Because we’re going to go and play Estero, and then we’ll move on from there. We’ll play North again. We’ll get another chance at it. We played Estero here, and I feel comfortable that we’ll be ready for that game.”
Kruse got North on the board less than three minutes into the match Friday night. Randi Lukas got things going with a long run up the sideline. The ball wound up with Gabby Ciancimino, who set up Kruse for the goal.
Taylor Pascal made it 2-0 late in the first half. Madison Lampkins got the assist as the Knights converted on a corner kick.
Kruse made it 3-0 late in the match. She got to a loose ball near the Baker goal and lofted a high shot over Bulldogs keeper Acelya Aydogmus.