North girls soccer off to a fast start
Losing in the first round of regionals to Estero last season gave the North Fort Myers high School girls soccer team a real bitter taste in their mouths. Blowing a two-goal lead and losing on penalty kicks will do that to you.
This season, it’s the Red Knights’ quest to take out their frustrations on everyone who takes the field against them.
Estero can attest to that.
Following a successful 15-7-1 campaign last season, North has taken off to a 7-0 start, outscoring its opponents by a 35-2 margin. In that time, it has beaten Ida Baker, which beat them in districts last season, and last week, took a 5-1-1 Estero team to the woodshed in an 8-0 mercy rule victory.
Second-year North head coach Nick Erickson outlined the way his team played against a tough opponent.
“That is a great team. In the first 15 minutes, they moved the ball around on us better than anyone has all season,” Erickson said. “I told during the water break them the level has to be picked up. And they took possession of the game.”
That was an understatement. Every centering pass they made was put in the net, everybody was where they were supposed to be, and they seemingly won every 50/50 ball.
When it was over, senior Randi Lukas had four goals, freshman Taylor Kruse also had a hat trick, and junior Madison Lampkins dished out five assists. A basketball point guard couldn’t do any better.
“Lampkins’ vision is first class. She’s the best midfielder in the county. Her ability to see the field and deliver the ball is special,” Erickson said. “Randy didn’t play with us last year and we couldn’t be happier that she’s back.”
Defensively, the Knights got to the ball quickly, helping to make it an easy night for senior goalkeeper Jacquie Scrivinich as the team registered its fifth clean sheet of the season.
But that’s how it’s been all season for the Big Red, and they all want to make a much deeper run this season than last. And the Knights may have to go through the team that has knocked them out of the playoffs three years running.
“We made a statement tonight that this is going to be our year. We’re a team that has a bond with each other,” Lampkins said. “We came out and said we’re not going to be knocked out any more.”
“We had to get in a groove and once we got the first goal, we kept the flow going,” Lukas said. “We have a lot of younger people in the team (five freshmen), so nobody was expecting for us work this good together.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Knights, who have three district games with Gulf Coast, Mariner and South Fort Myers coming out of Thanksgiving.
Erickson said he expects to see Estero again, and whenever they play, it won’t be the sweep this game was.
“They will regroup from this and come back harder and better than ever. They’ll be top two in the district and make regionals,” Erickson said. “We need to keep the consistency level high to get the outcomes we want.”