ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 St. Petersburg High’s girls soccer team had been waiting years for this moment.<\/p>\n
The Green Devils made it count.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg shut out East Lake 4-0 in the Pinellas County Athletic Conference championship match Jan. 16.<\/p>\n
The victory carried extra meaning. East Lake had dominated the rivalry, beating St. Petersburg by a combined 11-0 in the previous two seasons. This year, the Green Devils beat the Eagles twice.<\/p>\n
“There’s really not a limit with this team,” coach Greg Deese said. “If it’s their day, they can beat anyone.”<\/p>\n
The numbers support that claim. St. Petersburg is 14-2, including six straight shutouts to start the season. The defense has allowed five goals all year.<\/p>\n
The team’s only losses came in mid-December against Northside Christian and St. Petersburg Catholic, when injuries had thinned the roster and some players were competing in showcases.<\/p>\n
Ellie Swain has been the team’s versatile weapon. She’s spent most of this season in goal after playing as a scorer in previous years. The defensive unit in front of her \u2014 Lauren Trudell, Lily Joyner, Keira Phommavong and Maddy Hongo \u2014 has been suffocating.<\/p>\n
Kiana Sayavong leads the team with 21 goals.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg has knocked off some of the county’s top programs this season. Palm Harbor University, Osceola and Seminole all fell to the Green Devils.<\/p>\n
The team appears built for a deep postseason run. Last year’s squad reached the Class 5A region semifinals before losing to nationally ranked North Fort Myers in penalty kicks. Only four seniors graduated from that team, leaving St. Petersburg with experience and talent.<\/p>\n
Deese is in his second season as head coach after serving as an assistant with both the boys and girls programs at the school. The PCAC title checked off one goal. Now the team is aiming for a district championship and a trip to at least the region final.<\/p>\n
The conference title suggests St. Petersburg is capable of both.<\/p>\n
Quick hits<\/p>\n
High school coaches bills clear first committees<\/p>\n
Companion bills giving Florida school districts more flexibility in compensating high school coaches won bipartisan approval in their first committee votes.<\/p>\n
House Bill 731 and Senate Bill 538 both passed unanimously Jan. 20 in their respective committees. The measures, sponsored by Reps. Shane Abbott and Adam Anderson in the House and a Senate companion, would allow coaches to negotiate salaries outside the collective bargaining process and permit booster clubs to supplement their pay.<\/p>\n
Some superintendents are already drafting policies in anticipation of the bills becoming law, while others have indicated they may refuse to allow booster supplements even if permitted. The Florida Coaches Coalition has been pushing for four years to improve coaching salaries, citing an exodus of successful coaches to other states.<\/p>\n
Both bills now advance to their next committee stops.<\/p>\n
Boys soccer<\/p>\n
Stat leaders<\/p>\n
Here are the statistical standouts for boys soccer players in Pinellas County. The list was compiled from MaxPreps on Jan. 21.<\/p>\n
Goals<\/p>\n
24 \u2014 Samuel Pita, Hollins<\/p>\n
24 \u2014 Johnny Pericles, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
19 \u2014 Patrick Arledge, Lakeside Christian<\/p>\n
16 \u2014 Troy Zeno, Osceola<\/p>\n
16 \u2014 Jack Huzar, East Lake<\/p>\n
Assists<\/p>\n
12 \u2014 Zane Larsen, East Lake<\/p>\n
11 \u2014 Mohamed Tejaddine, PHU<\/p>\n
10 \u2014 Abraham Pita, Hollins<\/p>\n
9 \u2014 Jack Huzar, East Lake<\/p>\n
9 \u2014 Isaias Rodriguez, PHU<\/p>\n
Girls soccer<\/p>\n
Stat leaders<\/p>\n
Here are the statistical standouts for girls soccer players in Pinellas County. The list was compiled from MaxPreps on Jan. 21.<\/p>\n
Goals<\/p>\n
21 \u2014 Kiana Sayavong, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
19 \u2014 Brooke Raeffer, Tarpon Springs<\/p>\n
19 \u2014 Alexandra Ralph, Pinellas Park<\/p>\n
18 \u2014 Coral Morris, Lakeside Christian<\/p>\n
15 \u2014 Addison Cisneros, Northside Christian<\/p>\n
15 \u2014 Delaney Jaeger, Pinellas Park<\/p>\n
Assists<\/p>\n
19 \u2014 Elle Smith, Northside Christian<\/p>\n
14 \u2014 Kylie Larrahona, East Lake<\/p>\n
12 \u2014 Lila Calipari, Largo<\/p>\n
10 \u2014 Molly Koerner, Osceola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 St. Petersburg High’s girls soccer team had been waiting years for this moment. The Green…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[596,110,202,204,203,199,201,33994,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-132095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-pinellas-county","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-st-pete","11":"tag-st-pete-headlines","12":"tag-st-pete-news","13":"tag-st-petersburg","14":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","15":"tag-st-petersburg-high-school","16":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}