George Jenkins' Pursuit of State Title Comes Down to One Win

THE LEDGER

LAKELAND | There are plenty of story lines heading into today's Class 4A state final game for the George Jenkins girls soccer team.

 

The quest to finish this Cinderella season undefeated.

 

The desire to bring home a title for the boys, whose season ended abruptly last week when the team was eliminated from the playoffs for using an ineligible player during one postseason game.

 

The drive to keep making a name in girls high school soccer for Jenkins, which is in the playoffs for the 10th consecutive year.

 

The biggest thing this group is striving for, though, is to win a state title of its own. The last time Jenkins was in the championship game was 2009. The seniors on this team, including Kacy Scarpa, Tori Abnathy, Emily Rice, Christine Knudstrup, Linsi Anderson and Bri Vidal, were freshman then and couldn't emulate the state championship that the 2008 squad won, losing 3-1 to Palm Harbor University to end the season.

 

The defeat has weighed on the group, and getting knocked out of the playoffs each year since then has fueled them even more.

 

"Everything is on the line," said Abnathy, a forward and Florida State commit who leads the county in goals with 48. "This is what all of us have been working for year in and year out since we lost that title game. To get back on this stage."

 

Added Scarpa, a defender: "Having been there and knowing how it feels to lose, it just drives the seniors to win more. We knew this was our last chance we were going to be able to prove ourselves."

 

The ticket now is to get past Cape Coral's Ida S. Baker, a 25-2-4 team that beat Melbourne, a two-time state title winner in 2009 and 2010, to get into today's game.

 

From what Jenkins knows from scouting reports, Baker has a solid goalkeeper and forward.

 

But the Eagles (26-0) are focusing more on themselves heading into the contest ­because it's the same approach they have taken all season.

 

"If we worry about us, then the rest of it will take its place," Scarpa said. "We don't want to over-think things going in."

 

So the pregame routine will be the same today.

 

And coincidentally, part of it is similar to the one the 2008 championship team followed.

 

Before every game, someone on the team blasts the song "Hallelujah" by the group Paramore on their phone.

 

The chorus starts with "This time we're not giving up."

 

"The tradition has kind of been carried throughout the years," Scarpa said. "We listened to what the lyrics said and took them to heart."

 

They're looking to put those words into action today.

 

 

 

[ Solange Reyner can be reached at 863-802-7526 or solange.reyner@theledger.com. ]