DELAND - St. Johns Country Day School girls soccer executed a similar game plan as most of their 24-1 season record with a halftime advantage with a suffocating defense followed by a second half scoring blitz en route to a 4-0 win over Shorecrest Prep out of St. Petersburg in the Class 2A championship game played Wednesday in Deland. Shorecrest, with zero shots on goal and zero corner kicks, finished at 14-4-2.
"It was drizzling when it started," said Pickett.  "It was also very windy. I told them girls that it was raining on the other team just as hard and that to just play the game. Weather is a great equalizer."
For Pickett, though, a set play with just 90 seconds off the clock landed the first goal of the day with sophomore Hannah Lemieux netting a feed off a free kick to the right of the Shorecrest goalie by Paige Crews to put the Spartans on the scoreboard.
"I thought that's a good thing," said Pickett. "Hannah hammered the ball. She was injured coming in and we were unsure if she would be playing, but she got good therapy. A state championship game and an early goal makes a lot of pain go away I guess."
From there, St. Johns slowly defended Shorecrest's three fast-moving forwards to opposite corners of the field en route to a defensive stat of just two shots on goal for goalie Alexis Agromonte.
"On film, they had one girl, No. 4, that scored five goals in their playoff run and she was fast enough to get behind defenses," said Pickett. "There other two were just as quick and they created a lot of openings for the No. 4. We wanted to squeeze them to the outside and let our defender Lauren Weiss stay with her the whole game. She did a great job of marking here. Alexis, I think had just two touches and they were weak shots late in the game."
Just after the 20 minute first half water break, Crews would hammer in a free kick just outside the 18 yard line to punch in her 11th goal of the season.
"That was a textbook play that we practice a lot in practice, but never have done it right in a game," said Pickett. "The idea was to have our two girls; Weiss and Lauryn Mateo, standing in front of their wall to distract the goalie. The idea is to have Paige kick right at our two girls, they duck and we catch the goalie by surprise. It worked perfectly. I even sent the tape to the TCU girls soccer coach. After that one, I remember thinking this is a good sign."
The half stayed at 2-0 and Pickett noticed a lull in the incoming weather and charged his team to work fast to build a 3-0 lead then let the weather come in.
"Two nothing at the half is still a game, 3-0 is tough to come back from," said Pickett. "The flags were absolutely flat and I told them to play fast to take advantage before the clouds opened up."
After the half, with Moody becoming the obvious start point of the Spartan offense with her long throw-ins from multiple positions on the field, it was speedy forward Julia Boaventura who sparked a more forward front for the Spartan offense with a quick blast to goal as the second half began.
"We get a deep run to the goal line, they kick it out, and Maddy jogs for the throw," said Pickett. "One, it eats the clock. Two, she is a great throw-in and we've scored a ton of goals off her throws. It's very nerve-wracking for a goalie to have all those girls in front of her and the ball come in high normally off Lauryn flick gets it deep into the goal box."
Just seconds after missing her left foot shot on goal, Moody served up another throw-in that was ejected back to her where she used her right foot to find Boaventura in a scramble in front of the goal that missed the far right post by inches.
Moody, again at the 10 minute mark, would have a handful of throw-ins deep in Shorecrest territory that eventually rebounded back to Moody who fired off a wicked shot that skirted just above the Shorecrest goal. Moody also nearly netted a second free kick, from just inside the midfield stripe that again hit the crossbar.
Near the 18 minute mark, sideline midfielder Lauren Weiss got her feet on a loose ball and powered past the midfield stripe deep into the Shorecrest corner before turning and finding Mia Sadler just inside the 18 for a third goal; her 13th of the season.
"That was how that play is written up," said Pickett. "Lauren did a great job tracking that ball as deep as she could to draw the defense to her then found Mia inside the 18. She hammered it."
Just after the 20 minute water break, St. Johns again took the field with a flurry with Kamryn Towers finding Mateo with a rocket shot for goal four.
Pickett credited the team's tenacity to play as a team as critical for this year's success with their midseason 1-0 loss to Lake Highland Prep as a turning point of the season.
"These kids are a hard working, Blue Collar type of team that did not like the feeling of losing to Lake Highland," said Pickett. "I was encouraged that they actually felt really bad about losing that game because we hit the cross bar 11 times and let them dictate the game. The next day, we beat a good Bishop Moore team. Never did I think we would run the table and finish 24-1."