PONTE VEDRA - Taylor Tamares scored off a penalty kick in the first half of a tense 1-0 journey that the Fleming Island High girls soccer team held until the final minutes before host Ponte Vedra caught a ricochet off a corner kick to send the region 1-6A semifinal into overtime on a blustery afternoon at Beachside High School.

After two overtime stanzas, it came down to senior Kaitlyn Scherer knocking down the final penalty kick to secure the win for Fleming Island, 1-1 (4-3).

“I had to believe in myself to hit that final kick for the team,” said Scherer. “I originally asked to hit the second kick, but coach told me to go last. The last one is a lot of pressure. We did not want to go to penalty kicks because that’s how we lost to Fletcher last year.”

The original game date; Fri., Feb. 10, was suspended due to rain as weather upended north Florida action.

“That was a nationally ranked team out there (sixth in USA according to Maxpreps with St. Johns Country Day at three) and we played about as hard a game as I could ask for,” said Fleming Island coach Joy Rosano, just a day before her birthday on Mon., Feb. 13 and just hours before the Super Bowl. “We got a couple of bounces and that one penalty kick hit the cross bar. Sometimes big games are won by inches they say.”

Clay High, in region 1-4A, had to travel on Sunday to Panama City’s Arnold High School to play and lost an 8-1 contest to end their season.

Fleming Island, who lost 4-0 in regular season play and 3-0 in the district final to Ponte Vedra, was to regroup for just a day to take a six hour bus trip on Monday to play at Gulf Breeze in the region final on Tues., Feb. 14.

For Fleming Island High girls soccer coach Joy Rosano directed a pressure defensed and striking offense against the top-seeded Sharks, but could not penetrate the Sharks much bigger midfield lineup for much of the game.

On the day though, wind was a key factor with about a 20 miles per hour cross wind affecting most high-flying balls with Ponte Vedra getting the tailwind advantage for the first half.

“It was kind of a cross wind, but we knew to keep the ball low to move it,” said Rosano. “You could see the ball actually stop in midair on some of the high kicks.”

Despite the wind in their face, Fleming Island was able to move downfield behind the defensive efforts of Natalia Ramdas and Kennedy Johnsen and midfield direction from senior Kaitlyn Scherer and freshman Rylie Gardner.

In the second, still locked with a precarious 1-0 lead, Fleming Island took to pushing the ball into the Ponte Vedra, but also employing a zone type of defense in front of goalie Macy Opp.

“We didn’t want to give them hard shots right in front of the net,” said Rosano. “Macy did a nice job in goal and the front line defense kept pushing them further away from the goal.”

The strategy seemed to work, but in the final 20 minutes of the game, Ponte Vedra put up a handful of corner kicks after pushing to the back line.

At 9:42 to go, the Sharks scored off a corner kick to tie the game.

After the two overtimes, in penalty kicks to decide, the tally went to 1-1, with Ponte Vedra getting a save and Gianna Gardner up for Fleming Island. Gardner missed wide to keep the score tied still. Opp bent left and Ponte Vedra went right to put the pressure on Tamares to keep the game tied with Tamares burying a right side shot. Opp guessed wrong on the shot before Megan Cobb tied the game at 3-3.

On the next shot, Opp guessed right and the shot went right, but too high and hit the cross bar to set up Scherer’s gamewinner.